


People Like Us

by trappednightingale



Series: People Like Us 'Verse [1]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Minor Dean Ambrose | Jon Moxley/Roman Reigns/Seth Rollins | Tyler Black, and then some canon-atypical violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-08-03 07:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 27,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16321529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trappednightingale/pseuds/trappednightingale
Summary: When Kane and the Undertaker are kidnapped by the Wyatts, they're rescued by an unexpected ally. New relationships form, old ones resurface, and a group of people thrown together by a storyline gone horribly wrong learn what it means to be a family.





	1. we come into this world unknown

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during the Kane&Undertaker vs. the Wyatt Family arc in 2015.

The next time Kane opened his eyes, he groaned. What little light was illuminating the room was hurting his eyes, and he had a splitting headache. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d been taken by the Wyatts. He’d seen his brother a few times, but only in passing, never long enough to actually exchange words. To say he was in over his head was an understatement. He dropped his head, dark hair falling into his face as he heaved a sigh. The whole situation was out of his hands and he was nowhere near having even the slightest idea of how to get out of it. At the sound of footsteps, he tensed up, already knowing he wouldn’t like whatever came next.

But the sound wasn’t the heavy footfall of booted feet, and the sharp intake of breath was distinctly feminine.

“…Kane?” the footsteps came closer, and Kane forced himself to look up, eyes widening as he saw the slight figure emerging from the shadows.

“What…what are you doing here?”

AJ tucked a strand of hair behind his ear as she crouched down in front of him, a frown marring those lovely features he’d always adored. “I saw…on Raw a few weeks ago. And no one could find you, and you didn’t come back. So I called in some favors. C’mon, we’re getting you out of here.” He saw a slight glint as she pulled something out of her pocket and he instantly stilled as she reached behind him and began sawing away intently at the ropes he’d been bound with. It wasn’t a very elaborate set up, he’d just been forced to his knees and tied to an old heating unit of some kind, but it was still highly uncomfortable and he was grateful when he finally felt the fibers of the rope separate under AJ’s knife.

“AJ, c’mon, we found the others. We gotta get out of here.” Seth Rollins’ voice echoed through the dark room and Kane looked up in surprise and opened his mouth to say something, but AJ shook her head quickly.

“There’s a lot to explain. We’ll do that in the car.” She helped him stand up, surprisingly strong for her stature and they slowly made their way to the door. Weeks of torture and neglect had made Kane weak, and he hated that more than anything.

“I haven’t even spoken to you in years. What are you doing here?” Kane asked quietly, noting that Seth had already left them.

“No one was coming to help you.” AJ replied, not looking him in the eye. “And… I remember all the times you helped me when you didn’t have to. And I know that you would have done the same.”

Kane didn’t say that regardless of the passing of time, he would happily walk through hell and back for her. He felt that running for their lives was likely not the right timing to express such a sentiment. Nor should he express sentiment at all. He’d decided that years ago and a moment of weakness now shouldn’t change that. But AJ had his arm over her shoulder and was doing her best to support his weight, and out of nowhere she had come all the way to…wherever the hell they were to stage a rescue mission.

They heard a loud commotion coming from outside of the cellar door, and AJ shot Kane a worried look.

“We were planning on getting in and out quietly. Guess Plan A is out the window. Wait here.”

“That’s not happening.” Kane resisted as she tried to prop him up against the wall, standing unsteadily on his feet and taking a step towards her. She opened her mouth to retort, but the door flew open, exposing an enraged Braun Strowman. The large man roared and moved toward AJ, seizing her by the throat and slamming her into the ground. Kane expected a cry of pain, but the small woman just laughed and wiped at the blood that was dripping from her lip.

“Oh, you’re going to regret doing that.” She grinned, jumping up and delivering a well-aimed kick to his face. He stumbled backward and went to throw a punch at her, but Kane stepped forward and caught the large man’s fist in his hand. AJ laughed as Kane twisted Braun’s wrist until he heard a snap. The larger man crumpled to the ground and AJ turned to give Kane a look of approval.

“Knew you’d bounce back quick. C’mon.” She grabbed him by the arm as they headed through the doorway and into the open air. Kane was vaguely aware of the smell of smoke in the night air, but AJ was pulling him along too quickly for him to make any real sense of what was going on. His mind was still fuzzy, and his body was still protesting the movement.

“We’re almost there, okay? Paige’s got the car running. We just have to get there. You can get there, right?” AJ stepped back, tucking herself against Kane’s side and looking up at him worriedly.

“I can make it there.” He nodded, squeezing her ever so slightly. They walked away from the house, AJ helping Kane walk as best as she could, and they’d almost made it to the trees when they were tackled to the ground by Luke Harper. Erick Rowan was with him, and so was Bray, and AJ let out a string of curses. She jumped to her feet immediately, positioning herself between Bray and Kane.

“You’re making a mistake, little girl.” Bray drawled, taking a leisurely step towards her. Kane could see Luke and Erick moving towards them as well and he shakily got to his feet.

“I’m really, really not.” AJ grinned. “I’m not afraid of you, Bray. Not of you, and not of your creepy little family.”

“Oh, darlin’, you really shouldn’t have said that. Because we have no problem showing you exactly why you should be afraid of us.”

“AJ!” Kane quickly grabbed her and pushed her behind him, raising his hands to the sky and feeling the power slowly begin to flow through him. Before any of the Wyatt’s could take another step forward, he quickly brought his hands down and flames erupted all around them. AJ pressed herself closer to Kane and he pulled her close, trying to protect her from the heat of the fire.

“Trust me, alright?” He leaned down and murmured and she nodded immediately, wrapping her arms around his neck as he lifted her into his arms and cradled her to his chest. He wrapped his arms around her as best as he could before running straight into the flames, noting the way they almost seemed to part to allow them through. He could still feel the power coursing through his veins and he didn’t release AJ as he continued to run through the woods. He only slowed once they came to a clearing and he heard the squealing of tires on the dirt path.

Sure enough, a very battered truck was making its way to them, a determined-looking Paige at the wheel.

“Alright, guys, we’ve got everyone, we’ve got to go.” She shouted through the open window. The Undertaker was sitting in the front seat, slumped weakly against the headrest but still very much alive. Randy Orton was occupying half of the backseat, a gash on his side keeping him from sitting up properly and Kane immediately released AJ, letting her crawl into the backseat before following her and closing the door behind them. Seth and Roman Reigns held an unconscious Dean Ambrose between them in the truck bed and slowly things started making sense.

“I wanted to try to spring you last week. I knew that Daniel knew where the compound was and Paige owed me a favor. Dean was gonna go with me, but Roman talked him out of it. Apparently Bray overheard them, and next thing we knew, Bray took Dean, too.” AJ said quietly, shifting around in the seat as she tried to get comfortable between the two large men in such a small space. After a moment, she huffed and simply crawled into Kane’s lap, looking up at him as if daring to question her judgment.

“I’m just surprised you sprung Randy, too.” Kane remarked, his tone flat.

“He was an accident.” Paige shot over her shoulder, not removing her eyes from the road. “We thought the screams sounded like Dean. We were wrong.”

“We were gonna save Randy, too.” AJ glared up at Paige, but the blue-haired diva ignored her. “But once they took Dean, Seth was the one who reached out to me. He knew I could get ahold of Daniel Bryan. Good old goatface gave us the coordinates, and now we’re here.”

“It’s good that you came when you did.” The Undertaker’s voice cut through the silence in the car. “Bray was drawing off of our power. Kane and I will need to restore our strength, because Bray will be much tougher to beat the next time we see him.”

Kane’s arms had subconsciously moved to loosely wrap around AJ’s waist and they tightened at his brother’s words. She reached down and placed her hands over his and threaded her fingers between his own.

“It’s going to be alright. The way I see it, we’re pretty much all a stable now. We’ll have each other’s backs.” She said quietly. The Undertaker snorted in disbelief and AJ frowned. “I mean it. I already have my contract sorted out, I can come back to the company whenever I want. Taker, you can go back to your home, I doubt the Wyatts will be able to find you there, and the rest of us will look out for each other.” She tightened her hold on Kane’s hand, then shifted so she could look him in the eye. “We won’t let this happen ever again.”

“This never should have happened in the first place. The Wyatts need to be taught a lesson.”

“Oh, don’t worry. They’ll get what’s coming to them. Plus I’m pretty sure Dean burned their house down on his way out.” Randy groaned and brought a hand up to cover the gash on his stomach. “Hospitals. Please tell me we’re going to one.”

“Right after a stop at Taco Bell, sunshine. Gotta have my crunchwrap.” Paige retorted and Randy rolled his eyes.

AJ laughed quietly and untangled her fingers from Kane’s, lifting her hands to rest on either side of his face. She pushed a hand through his hair and grimaced at the sticky feeling of the blood caked on the strands. Leaning forward, she gently pressed their foreheads together and Kane took that time to take a deep breath and just inhale her scent. God, had it really been years since he’d had her this close to him?

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” She murmured and he brought his hands up to lightly grip her wrists, his thumbs coming to rest on her pulse points.

“Thank you. For rescuing me.”

She pulled away and smiled at him, but he could see the slightest hint of tears in the corners of her eyes. He was about to speak, but he had no idea what words would even come out of his mouth. What do you say to someone you’ve loved for years? To someone who made you feel alive?

“And thank you, Paige, for putting down a deposit on this rental truck that I’ll never get back and playing the getaway driver and putting my life on the line even though I’m not overly fond of any of you.” The girl driving the car quipped, breaking the silence.

In the rearview mirror, Kane could see the slightest hint of a smile on the Undertaker’s lips, and he instinctively pulled AJ closer until she was pressed against his chest. She was right, the Wyatts would get theirs. And together, they’d be the authors of their destruction.


	2. but know that we are not alone

“Why are you here, AJ?” Kane’s voice cut through the silence of the empty living room and AJ shifted on the couch to look at him in surprise.

The night before had found them in a small hospital in Texas where Dean and Randy had both been admitted for the night. They’d wanted to put as much distance between themselves and the Wyatt compound as possible, but Randy and Dean both needed medical attention so they’d stopped a few hours into Texas. Undertaker had flat out refused treatment for himself and Kane, stating that they merely needed time and rest and their injuries would heal themselves. AJ hadn’t been thrilled at the thought of either man’s injuries going untreated, but she knew better than to argue with the Deadman, so she’d remained silent.

They’d spent the night in the waiting room until the boys were released at first light, and the rest of the day was spent in the cramped truck with Paige and AJ alternating between driving. It was nearing midnight by the time they’d reached their destination and AJ was more than a little shocked at just how…residential the house was. Michelle McCool had greeted them at the door, throwing her arms around the Undertaker the moment the man crossed the threshold. She’d proceeded to usher them all into the kitchen, where she’d prepared dinner despite the late hour. Within hours, she had all of them in fresh clothes, all various pieces of Undertaker merchandise, but clean and warm and therefore welcome. AJ was too small to borrow anything of Michelle’s, but she was more than comfortable in a large t-shirt that was acting as a nightgown. Seth, Roman and Dean had retired to one of the guest rooms a few hours ago, presumably to talk out whatever weird truce they’d fallen into, and Randy had practically passed out after eating, so Michelle had graciously directed him towards another room. Undertaker had disappeared shortly after dinner, and even his wife admitted that she wasn’t entirely sure where he’d disappeared to. Paige had left for their shared room a mere hour ago, leaving just Kane and AJ in a somewhat uncomfortable silence that the demon had broken with his words.

AJ frowned and shifted closer to where Kane was stretched out on the couch. “I already told you. I came to help you.” Her fingers tightened on her coffee mug and she looked at him inquisitively. It was dark in the living room, but she could still make out the shape of his mask in the low light. She knew she should make her excuses and go to bed, knew that she needed the rest to make up for the past few days, but she also knew that they were all packing up and headed to the taping of Raw tomorrow night and knew there wouldn’t be much time for her and Kane to actually talk, so she wanted to take advantage of the time she had.

"All those years passed and... I was so young then, you know? I was young and new to the business and all of the sudden I was the center of attention and… It was like I got high off of it. And I know I did wrong by you, so many times. And I know you have every right to… to not wanna talk to me. If you just want to make this a temporary truce, then that’s fine.” She took a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh. “But for what it's worth… I've missed you. And I couldn't just… I couldn't just sit back and let them hurt you.”

Kane was silent for a moment, and AJ almost started to make an excuse to leave until he finally spoke.

“You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into.”

AJ smile wryly at that and shook her head. “No, I know exactly what I've gotten myself into. The Wyatts… They're not people to mess with. But it's okay. Some things are worth the danger.”

Kane moved to rise up at that, but AJ was quicker and she placed a hand against his chest, pushing him gently until he was laying down again.

“You need to rest. I know your brother said you'd heal, but they had you for weeks, and I know they put you through hell.” She winced at her choice of words, but Kane merely laughed darkly.

“No, trust me. Nothing they could ever do could come close to what hell is like.” Kane paused and when he spoke again, his voice was quieter. “But my brother is right… He and I will heal far quicker than the others. We’re not…human. Not quite.”

AJ frowned, suddenly reminded of what happened in the clearing the night before. It had all happened so fast, but she couldn't blame the sudden ring of fire not their passing through it unscathed on a trick of her imagination and exhausted brain. “I'm going to be honest, Kane. For awhile, I thought the fire and sudden appearances were just tricks. But…it's all real, isn't it?”

“Very real.”

“Then… I want to know more. Not right now, and not if you don't want to tell me but… If the Wyatts were able to draw from your power, that means I'm going to be dealing with it. We all will. We have targets on our backs now, and the boys have had to go up against the Wyatts before, and you and Taker for that matter but… I'm kind of working off nothing here. I need to know what I'm going to be up against.”

“There's no telling what any of us will be up against, AJ. They're different from my brother and I. It's a completely different kind of magic. But… I will do my best to teach you what I can.”

She knew it couldn't be easy for him, knew he was opening up to her in a way he hadn't opened up to anyone else before, and she instinctively reached out and took his hand in her own. “We’ll take them down, Kane. I'm not going to let them hurt you, or anyone else ever again.”

Feeling Kane’s hand shift until their fingers were tangled together loosely, AJ smiled. “Besides, our team is kickass. We've got the Viper, Hell’s favorite demon, and the Shield! Maybe even Paige, if she feels like it.”

"And the Black Widow." Kane amended quietly and AJ flushed in response, pleased.

“Yeah. And me. Those creepy assholes don't stand a chance.”


	3. change is coming

When Kane came to the next morning, there was a warm weight half on top of him, half pressed between his side and the couch. He glanced down in alarm until he saw the familiar black hair sprawled across his chest. He let out a quiet breath, then brought his hand up to loosely wrap around AJ. She'd fallen asleep in the middle of a conversation the night before and he didn't have the heart to move her. Also, he was highly uncomfortable at the thought of waking up Paige by carrying the sleeping Diva to her room. His hand had just began to stroke AJ’s hair when he became aware of the fact that they were very much not alone.

“I think you two are a good match.” Michelle said from where she was standing in the doorway, steam coming from the cup of coffee in her hands. Kane merely grunted in response, and the blonde laughed. “I mean it! I know you and my husband tend to look at us mortals as breakable things, weaknesses even, but that girl took on some seriously terrifying guys to get you back. Not many women would be willing, much less able to do that.”

“She had help.”

“Every queen has the power to call on an army.” Michelle shrugged, smile still on her lips. “I've seen the way you look at her. Ever since you laid eyes on her back in 2012, you've adored the girl. Let yourself be happy, Kane.”

With that, she gave him a brief wink before leaving for the kitchen, humming an unfamiliar tune under her breath. Kane let out a brief sigh, then shook his head. His hand resumed stroking AJ’s hair for a few moments that he almost dared to call blissful until the girl in his arms began to stir.

"Mm. Morning." She yawned, blinking up at him as a smile spread over her lips. Kane could only stare at her in shock, unsure of how a woman so perfect and beautiful could wake up to the sight of a monster and smile. His hand immediately fell to his side as she rose up and stretched, her chipped black nails glinting dangerously in the morning light. “Please tell me that's coffee I smell.”

“I believe Michelle has some in the kitchen.” He finally spoke, still in a state of disbelief at how completely at ease she seemed.

“Oh, that's the best news. Great news. I'm gonna get on that before Paige wakes up and tries to steal some.” She ran a hand through her hair, fingers tugging at the tangles that had formed in her sleep. “Want me to get you a cup?”

“No, I don't drink coffee. Or caffeinated beverages.”

She looked almost heartbroken at that, and he almost opened his mouth to take it back and accept her offer until she grinned again. “Oh man that could be a serious advantage. You and Taker are already crazy powerful. Just imagine adding a red bull to the mix. You could level a city!”

“No, I think that would just bring on the apocalypse.” Kane remarked wryly.

AJ blinked at him for a moment, then laughed as she rose to her feet. “You know, things have been so serious lately, I didn't realize how much I missed your sense of humor.” She smiled, reaching down to pat him on the leg. “I'll be back in a bit. Some of us need caffeine to live.”

Kane watched her skip away, the barest hint of a smile coming to his lips before he heard doors beginning to open. Paige was the first to wander downstairs, her hair tied up in a messy bun and a dark expression on her face.

“Don't…even look at me. Not until coffee. Fuck off.” She said as she passed him, barely even giving him a second glance.

Seth and Roman were next, an exhausted Dean trailing behind them.

“S’not like we have to be there till seven. Coulda let me sleep.” He grumbled, clearly even less of a morning person than Paige. Roman and Seth seemed alert at least, which was more than could be said for Randy as he limped down the stairs.

“I swear to god I'm gonna fucking kill the Wyatts and everyone they've ever met. I think they took my goddamn kidney.”

“Nope, all of your organs are still intact.” AJ said cheerfully as she returned to the living room, taking a seat on the couch next to Kane’s feet. “I peeked at your medical reports. You just have that gash. So stop being a baby. Michelle made breakfast and your painkillers are on the table.”

Kane was suddenly reminded of Michelle’s comment about queens and their armies. It wasn't really that much of a stretch, he thought as he watched Randy drag himself into the kitchen without any more complaints.

He could hear conversation slowly starting, and he reluctantly rose to a sitting position. “We should join them. Talk about strategy.”

“Nah.” AJ waved him off, then handed him a piece of toast from her plate which he accepted warily. She gave him a brief smile. “We've got a six hour car ride after this to make plans. For right now, it's good to just enjoy the peace, you know?”

"The calm before the storm…” Kane trailed off, and AJ nodded.

“Exactly. I mean, who knows when we’re gonna get another chance to be like this?” AJ blew gently on her coffee before taking a sip, closing her eyes as a slight smile formed on her lips. “There's nothing wrong with enjoying the little moments, especially when we’re gearing up to fight a war.”

"A war you shouldn't have to fight.”

“Oh hush.” She stuck her tongue out at him and he blinked in surprise. “I said it last night, but I'll say it again. I don't care what they throw at me. Getting you out of there was worth whatever beatdown they're gonna try to lay on me.”

Kane couldn't help but reach out at that, and he took AJ’s face between his hands as gently as he could. “Don't say things like that. They won't lay a finger on you. You really think I'll let them get close enough to even try?”

AJ’s round brown eyes locked with his for a moment, and it was as though time stood still. All of the sudden, he was reminded of that night in the boiler room so many years ago when he couldn't help but to pull her in and kiss her as though his very life depended on it. He could feel himself leaning forward, as though he wasn't even in control of his own body anymore. But the spell was broken with a loud clearing of a throat from the doorway.

"So it should be noted that we can't really drive into a Raw taping with a pickup truck full of more than the legal number of occupants. We’re gonna need a bigger car.” Paige said dryly as she entered the room. Kane immediately released AJ’s face and inched away from her on the couch as Paige took a seat on the other side of the brunette.

"We could always take two cars.” Randy suggested, sinking into the curve of the L-shape in the sofa.

“Yeah, I don't know about y'all but I don't feel too great about the idea of splitting up. Too much could go wrong.” Roman shook his head as he and the other two Shield members came to take up the rest of the couch.

“It's a road trip. What's the worst that can happen?” Paige countered.

“Well, there's kidnapping, torture, straight up murder, ritualistic human sacrifice, weird stuff involving hobos—“

“What Dean’s trying to say is that there's a chance the Wyatts could be having us followed. With three of us still recovering, it's not the best idea to split up.” Seth quickly cut Dean off.

“Why do I have the feeling this is going to end up with all of us crammed into a minivan?” Randy sighed.

* * *

Surely enough, three hours later found them all shoved into a minivan. What clothes and what wrestling gear of theirs that was still worth saving after the Wyatt incident had been washed and packed into duffel bags by Michelle, while everyone else had already contacted the wardrobe department to have new gear made up for them for that night’s event. She'd sent them off with enough food to feed a third world country as well as a promise to send Taker to them as soon as he returned from…wherever it was he'd disappeared to. Dean, Roman and Seth had been squished into the backseat, while Randy and Kane occupied the middle seats. AJ started off the trip at the wheel while Paige took up the role of navigator in the passenger’s seat. The first hour passed in relative silence until AJ found the highway, at which point she broke the quiet.

“Okay guys, time to talk strategy. Who has ideas on how to take down the Wyatts?”

“All of my ideas involve barbed wire and thumbtacks, so I'm not allowed to contribute anymore.” Dean piped up, and AJ couldn't stifle her laughter.

“Yeah, as fun as that would be to watch, there's no way they'd go for a death match.” AJ sighed somewhat ruefully.

"Here's what we know about the Wyatts. They like to take people on individually, use their numbers to their advantage. But the way I see it, we've got them outnumbered and outmanned. The Shield is gonna have our official reunion tonight, but everyone else needs to have someone watching their back at all times.” Seth spoke up. “Hate to say it girls, but you're going to be the obvious weak spot.”

“Girls? Oh hell no. I'm not a part of this.” Paige shook her head. “Sorry, AJ but you're on your own.”

“Yeah, except they saw you with us sweetheart.” Randy countered. “Like it or not, you're in the same boat as us.”

Paige crossed her arms angrily and fell silent at that. AJ shot her a sympathetic look. “Paige, I’m really sorry, I never meant to—”

“Save it AJ. You’ve been screwing me over since day one. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that was going to change.”

AJ’s heart twisted at that, and her mouth set into a grim line as she focused her attention on the road again.

“That’s not fair to AJ. It’s not like she did this cause she wanted to fuck you over. She did this cause we needed her help. If it weren’t for her… I don’t know that we’d still be breathing.” Dean spoke up after a moment of silence had passed.

“I’ll do what I can to keep you out of it. But know that I’m still gonna have your back if something happens.” AJ said quietly. “They’re right… We’re a weak point. We’ve never gone up against the Wyatts, and we have no idea what it’s like to get into the ring against something… supernatural.”

“Goddammit, I just want to focus on the Divas title. I don’t want to be involved with any of this!”

“You really think any of us want to be in this situation?” Randy asked incredulously. “Dude, the Wyatts kidnapped me just because I tagged with Roman and Dean. They took Dean because he wanted to help AJ bust Kane out. If what Kane and Taker said is true, the Wyatts are working with some crazy mojo now. There’s no telling what they’re capable of, but it’s pretty obvious to me that they were gearing up for a war. Taking out me and Dean was just their way of trying to thin out the numbers of people that would have the balls to stand up against them.”

“There’s no telling what they were planning.” Kane finally spoke up, his voice grim. “But it involved siphoning power from me and my brother, so nothing good can possibly come from that.”

“Kane’s right. Being on the defensive for a little bit is a good idea, but it’s playing it safe. We’re gonna need to make a statement, let em know that we can take whatever they wanna throw at us.” Seth nodded, shifting uncomfortably from where he was crammed between Dean and Roman. “Which means we’re gonna need to start training. AJ, you’re gonna be a serious target. You need to start training with us so you can get used to taking on bigger competitors. You too, Paige.”

“Yeah, when you’re as small as me, everyone is a bigger competitor.” AJ laughed, attempting to lighten the mood somewhat. In the rear-view mirror, she could glimpse a brief smile underneath Kane’s mask.

“She took on Braun Strowman well enough. But I agree. We should all be training every day. We need to be a cohesive unit if we want to have even a chance at taking on the Wyatts.” Kane sighed and tilted his head back against the headrest.

“For now, let’s tackle one day at a time, at least until we get a better idea about what exactly the Wyatts are planning.” Seth rubbed his hands together. “So. What’s the plan for tonight?”


	4. everybody loses it

Backstage, they could all hear the explosions going off signaling the beginning of Raw. Their group was huddled around a monitor in one of the conference rooms, having decided to keep a low profile and stay on the defensive until the Wyatts made the first move. Kane glanced over at AJ, cocking his head and taking in the bright smile on her lips, the light dancing in her eyes as the announcers began opening remarks. He hadn't even realized how much he missed her until she had thrown herself back into his life, but now that she was here, sitting next to him, he couldn't even imagine being apart from her again.

As though sensing what he was thinking, AJ turned her head slightly to look at him, her smile going suddenly soft. “The New Day is shooting a promo, I doubt the Wyatts will show up till later tonight. Probably after my match with Paige… You'll watch it, right?”

"I won't be at ringside, but I'll be close, just in case they try anything.” Kane nodded, blinking as AJ waved him off.

“They won't attack me tonight. Not until they've established that I'm the enemy. Gotta convince the masses, you know?” She hummed thoughtfully, then shook her head. “But I still want you to watch my match.”

“Why?”

“I dunno. I just always felt better when I knew you were watching me. Like you're my lucky charm.”

Kane scoffed at that. “I'm hardly a good luck charm, AJ.”

“Always worked for me.” She shrugged in response. “But if it'll make you feel any better, you can tell yourself you're just watching so you can have my back.”

Kane couldn't help but fall silent at that, and AJ returned her attention to the monitor. He'd forgotten how odd she was, how she could say things that left him feeling unsettled and…raw in a way. Mortals were a weakness, he reminded himself as he settled back into the uncomfortable metal chair. And if he kept stealing sideways glances at AJ, well. That was no one’s business but his own. Even if he did catch Dean occasionally giving him searching looks.  
* * *

Kane didn't follow AJ to gorilla position, to her dismay, but Dean was by her side, a companionable arm tossed around her shoulders. They'd been a weird kind of friends ever since the Shield’s initial debut, never making a big deal about it, but always being a consistent presence for each other. She could remember the first time she'd met him, right before a show one night when she caught him sneaking out of the tech booth where he'd presumably just finished planting the Shield’s latest manifesto. He'd threatened to kill her, she’d laughed in his face, and they'd instantly bonded in a way that only two completely unstable human beings could.

“—and then I said, get this, ‘That's not a knife…this is a knife!’” Dean doubled over in laughter, and AJ couldn't help but join him.

“God, you're such a weirdo.” The arm that wasn't wrapped around Dean’s waist came to wrap around her own rib cage as she tried to contain her laughter. “Alright, alright, I gotta get my game face on. Any last words of advice?”

Dean’s expression suddenly became somber and he let out a sigh. “You're gonna get some heat. Paige is gonna say some rough shit, and you don't know whose side the crowd will take. But that shit don't matter. Say what you gotta say, then make your actions talk even louder.” He leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head. “Go give em hell kid.”

AJ nodded, her face set in determination as Dean waved in farewell. She knew he wouldn't be far off, even if he wasn't at 100%, but she was still filled with sudden fear. She hadn't really, truly wrestled in a long while. If she lost the night of her big return, there was no telling how long it would take for her to gain momentum and earn back the respect she'd lost in her absence. Paige’s music hit at that moment, and AJ saw a glimpse of black and blue hair disappearing behind the curtain before she moved to stand where her once-friend had mere seconds previously. She smiled as she heard the familiar banshee shriek, then focused her attention on the monitor next to the curtain.

Paige still had on her leather jacket over her ring gear, and she had a microphone in hand, a grin on her lips as she waited for the crowd to die down.

“This…is my ring. I've made it mine from the second I came to the WWE. And you all agree with me, don't you? When I scream ‘This is my house!’, you always cheer along with me! Because you know that I am the best in the world. And with this whole Divas Revolution nonsense, I can't help but get the feeling that I'm being forgotten…overlooked, even. I've done everything I can to make my point, but no one seems to be listening. I want that Divas title. I deserve that title. This is my ring, this is my revolution, and this is MY HOUSE!” The last words were said as a scream, but the sound died in her throat as familiar music hit.

“Let's light it up!” AJ hummed happily as she pushed through the curtain and began her traditional skip to the ring. She took a lap around the ring for good measure, wiggling her fingers at the announcers before making her way over to the steps. She daintily wiped her feet on the apron, looking over at Paige and registering the look of absolute shock on the girl’s face. Credit where credit was due, the girl could sell. When she was finally handed a microphone, she skipped right up to Paige, keeping her expression unreadable.

“You know what gets me about this whole Divas revolution thing? Those girls from NXT are acting like they're the ones who started it. But you and I both know that's not true, don't we, Paige?”

The faintest hint of a smile appeared on Paige’s lips, but AJ continued speaking before she could get a word in.

“That's right, because I'm the one who started it. I've been changing the game since I came here. But that's not the point. Arguments could be made that the Bella brats changed the game with their twin magic bull crap, or the NXT girls with their fresh faces, or your debut when you bested me on your first night and became not only the youngest Divas champion, but the youngest champion in WWE history. The bottom line is, we all fight every day to make a name for ourselves. But people didn't start to really look at the Divas division until I was champion and retained my title at Wrestlemania while defending against every Diva on the roster.”

“AJ, it's really great that you want to come back and…relive your glory days or whatever. Really, it's wonderful.” Paige rolled her eyes. “But things have changed. You actually have to have talent if you want to make a name for yourself these days and well…let's face it. You may have been good once, but you clearly lost your touch or you wouldn't have ran off with your tail between your legs like a scared. Little. Bitch.”

As soon as the word left Paige’s mouth, AJ threw herself on the dark-haired Diva, her head thudding as it connected with the mat. AJ delivered a flurry of punches to Paige’s face, pulling them as much as possible. With an angry shout, Paige threw her off, scrambling quickly to the other side of the ring so she could shuck her jacket off. AJ pretended to be disoriented long enough for Paige to deliver a swift kick to her stomach before she was on her feet again. She was distantly aware of the sound of the bell ringing, signaling the official start of the match, and of a referee joining them in the ring, but all she cared about was her opponent.

AJ and Paige lunged for each other at the same time, immediately locking up and trying to overpower the other. While her fingers were still locked with Paige’s, she ducked down to drive her shoulder into Paige’s solar plexus. The other girl let out a surprised noise but let go, allowing AJ to turn and sprint towards the ropes, bouncing off them to take down Paige with a clothesline. She gave her a moment to recover before she was launching herself at Paige again, her muscle memory alone pushing her through the movements of the Black Widow.

AJ locked it in and smiled triumphantly at Paige. She'd won, she'd done it, now she just needed Paige to tap and then—

Her thought process was cut off as the arena went dark and a sharp sound filled the air. She immediately rolled off Paige, groping for her hand in the darkness. Paige swatted her off just as the lights came back, dim, but still there. An eerie laugh filled the room, and AJ focused her attention on the large screen as Bray Wyatt’s face came into the picture.

“Girls, girls. Now’s not the time for fighting. Not each other, at least. You've got a much bigger problem on your hands. A much bigger war is coming your way.” Even through the video feed, it was as though Bray’s gaze was piercing through her. She shifted uncomfortably but stood her ground, and Bray let out a sinister laugh. “You took something of mine, little girl. Did you really think you'd get away with it?”

“You can't own people, Bray.”

“Ah, but can a demon and a deadman really be considered people? When the life has left their body, have they not given up their rights to claim humanity?”

“You had Dean, too. And Randy.” AJ pointed out, crossing her arms. “And it doesn't matter that they're not human. That doesn't give you the right to kidnap and torture them.”

"It's not your place to say what is and isn't my right, little girl!” Bray roared suddenly, and AJ warily took a step back. “I am the eater of worlds, the new face of fear—”

“Really?” She said, making the challenge evident in her voice. “Cause I'm not afraid of you. Maybe you should get a new name. The lord of the lameasses, maybe?”

Bray didn't respond, merely smiling wickedly before the feed cut out. The arena went dark again for the briefest of seconds before the lights came up, revealing the Wyatt family surrounding the ring. Paige let out a string of curses under her breath, then shot AJ a look of pure terror. There was a Wyatt at each rope with no hope of escape. And there was Bray, laughing maniacally as he locked eyes with her from across the ring. Paige pressed her back to AJ’s, reaching back to grab AJ’s hand.

“I swear to god, I'm going to bloody kill you.”

AJ opened her mouth, to retort or reassure she wasn't sure, but then the Wyatts each took a step forward in tandem and her throat went suddenly dry. Before she could say a word, though, a loud voice cut through the silence.

“Sierra, hotel, India, echo, Lima, delta, Shield!”

And with the harsh guitar chords came the boys, rushing down the stairs as the crowd around them went crazy. The Wyatts froze in place, even as Seth grabbed a microphone.

“I don't know about you guys, but I'd say that attacking a lady qualifies as an injustice, wouldn't you boys?” Dean and Roman fell into place at Seth’s sides, looking menacingly at each of the Wyatts. Bray was the first to move, ducking under the ropes and moving towards AJ. The Shield moved as a unit, then, rushing into the ring only to get ganged up on by Erick, Rowan, and Braun. AJ instinctively turned around and shoved at Paige.

“Run!” Her words were cut short as Bray’s hand circled her wrist and she froze, petrified. She turned to face him, trying her damnedest not to let the fear show.

“You're going to regret crossing paths with me, little girl. Just you wait and see.” All of the sudden, a grin spread across his features. Before AJ could ask, the lights went out again, only for the ringposts to explode in fire as sinister music filled the arena. AJ could have cried in relief to see Kane rushing towards the ring, but she had more pressing matters to attend to.

She threw all her weight to the ground, forcing the distracted Bray to release his grip on her as she scrambled away. She immediately went towards Kane, only to be yanked back by her arm and tossed to the other side of the ring. Pain erupted in her side as her ribcage made contact with the ringpost and she immediately went limp, her hair pooled over her face. She knew better than to exacerbate injuries, knew that she'd likely just broken something. So she stayed still, even as the arena went black.

When the lights came back on, the Wyatts were nowhere to be seen. The Shield had rushed into the ring, but Kane was already by her side. AJ rolled over somewhat gingerly and allowed him to lift her into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck as he carefully maneuvered their way out of the ring. The Shield’s music hit, and AJ glanced back to the ring to see the boys standing triumphantly in the middle, fists pressed together. She could see Paige, too, huddled down in the timekeepers station and looking completely shaken up.

She blinked in surprise as she felt Kane lean down and press his lips gently to the top of her head as soon as they were past the curtain, and she shifted to bury her face in his chest.

“Thank you for looking out for me.”

“I should have been there sooner. He never even should have laid a finger on you.” Kane said darkly, his grip on her tightening. She reached up to thread her fingers through his dark hair, tugging in a slight reprimand.

“Hey. None of that. You're still recovering. You got there when it mattered. I'm okay.”

“You're hurt.”

"Yeah, well, that's what happens when you're a professional wrestler. I'm gonna get hurt. You can't blame yourself every time I do. I'm pretty tough, I can take a hit.” AJ smiled up at him. He sighed but didn't say anything in response, and she took that as a small victory.


	5. here's to the damned, to the lost and forgotten

They weren't required for Smackdown, which was good, Kane noted as he side eyed AJ’s freshly bandaged ribs. She'd fractured one, but she said she could handle the pain, so the trainer cleared her for competition the following Monday night. Randy still had a couple of weeks before he'd be cleared due to the poor stitching job by the hospital he'd been admitted to. Not that it mattered much to Kane, but it would be nice to have more backup the next time the Wyatts went after them. He was slowly starting to believe in the strength in numbers philosophy he'd been ignoring for most of his career.

They'd all crammed into a minivan yet again the following morning, this time with Randy and Seth alternating driving. Paige still seemed rather shaken up by the incident with the Wyatts and Dean and Kane both objected whenever AJ offered to take a shift at the wheel. He got a strange feeling in his stomach when he saw AJ nestled in the backseat between Dean and Paige, her head resting on the shoulder of the lunatic fringe as she dozed off. He grimaced as he finally put a name to that feeling: jealousy. He didn't like it, felt he didn't really have the right to that feeling. Sure, he and AJ had…something between them, but neither of them had really addressed it. So he remained silent for the duration of the car ride, focusing on the sound of her breath leaving and entering her body as a way to remind him that she was alright.

They'd stopped for food once or twice, then made it to the hotel before the sun had even set. The members of the Shield had immediately set off for the gym, a reluctant Randy in tow, leaving Paige, Kane and AJ to their own devices. He'd opted to stay in the room with the girls for a few hours, appointing himself as their guardian so they could rest.

“This shit… It's all really happening, isn't it?” Paige asked, her voice cutting through the silence in the room. AJ was sleeping, and Kane shifted his attention from her to the darker Diva.

“Yes. It would appear as though we’re at war.”

“Yeah, that was what I was afraid of.” Paige heaved a sigh, shifting on the bed to draw her knees to her chest. She looked so small in that instant, that Kane felt truly bad for her. This wasn’t something she’d chosen for herself. She’d been forced into this war and had no hope of escaping it. He wanted to open his mouth, to say something encouraging, but he was so far out of his depths with situations like these. Fortunately, Paige sighed and shot him a tired smile.

“Listen, I just… I really want to get a shower and sleep for a few hours. This is going to sound strange, but… do you mind staying? I don’t exactly trust people easily, but. I know that if something were to go down, you’d be able to protect me and AJ better than we could on our own.”

“I doubt they’d follow you here. But, if it will help… I’ll stay.”

Paige seemed relieved to hear that, and she wasted no time in gathering her things and disappearing into the hotel bathroom. Moments later, AJ was stirring, and she grinned over at Kane.

“I think you’re growing on her.”

Kane frowned. “How long have you been awake?”

“Never really fell asleep. But I figured she needed to get some stuff off her chest, so I thought I’d at least give her the illusion of privacy.” She pushed herself up to a sitting position, wincing slightly. “Ah, I keep forgetting that I’m not invincible. This hurts like a bitch.” AJ gingerly pressed her hand to her injured side.

“Do you want something for the pain?” Kane offered quietly, and she nodded in response. He went over to where her bag was and dug around for the orange pill bottle, pressing two of the white pills into her palm and handing her a water bottle. She downed the pills quickly, drinking half of the water as well before screwing the top back on the bottle and setting it on the nightstand. Reaching behind herself to adjust the pillows so she could rest against them, she shot Kane a questioning look.

“Can you explain something to me?”

“…I can try.”

“Great. See, when Bray had me by the wrist, before your music hit, he got this…look on his face. Like he knew you were coming. I didn't really think about it at the time, but it's been bugging me the more I look back on it.” She huffed a sigh. “So…what's up with that? Is that actually a thing he can do or am I going crazy and getting paranoid?”

Kane shifted in his chair, suddenly uncomfortable. “There are a few possibilities… My brother and I are capable of sensing each other's presence. I assumed that was simply because of our bond but it may be a result of what we are.” He took a deep breath, then shook his head. “It's entirely possible that he's become like my brother and I. I don't know how he would have obtained the knowledge required to become like us, but he certainly has the power to do so now. And when you become like us… Certain aspects get amplified. He may very well have the gift of foresight now.”

“What do you mean when you say ‘like us’?” AJ asked, her voice quiet. “What are you?”

“Dead.” He replied simply. “And yet not. Something in between.”

“That makes absolutely no sense.”

Kane sighed and rubbed a hand over his still-masked face. “My brother and I…surely you heard of the fire that destroyed our home and family?”

“Yeah…he escaped and you…you burned. Because you were locked in the basement.” He could hear the pity in her voice and he refused to look at her, unable to think of himself as something worthy of compassion. Kane leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees as he began to speak.

“That's not exactly the case. The story is that he didn't know I was down there, that I even existed. But he did. He hated what our parents had done to me, hated that I was confined to the shadows. My mother...she was a sorcerer. A strong one, as is my brother. And she had these books that he used to steal and read in the dead of night. One of them contained a powerful spell, and he didn't properly understand it, didn't understand what it truly meant. He just saw that it promised strength and power and everything he ever wanted for himself and me. So, he performed it to the letter, without my knowledge.” Kane paused, uncertain of how blunt to be when saying what happened. Finally, he sighed and continued.

“We both perished in the fire that day. He rose before I did, and believed the spell to be a failure. It was only after he met Paul Bearer and after I returned to his life that he realized just what he'd done. We are both powerful now, and almost impossible to kill, and we’ll likely remain on this earth until the end of time. But the price was our lives. He'd killed us so we could both have a chance at a better life. I used to resent him for that. I don't think I do anymore.”

The silence that filled the room was deafening, and he was afraid to look anywhere but at the floor. When he finally rose his gaze to look at AJ, he flinched, expecting to see horror as she finally knew the truth of what he was. And just as he feared, her hands were clasped over her mouth and her eyes were wide in shock, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes. He immediately looked away and rose to his feet. “I…should go. You need to rest—”

He was cut off as AJ’s hand circled his wrist, and he looked over to see her kneeling on the bed, reaching for him.

“Kane… I'm so sorry. I know… I knew that things had been bad for you. I didn't know how bad though. I'm so so sorry. I can't imagine what that must have been like. I mean…you died. That must have been awful.”

“Death…is not something I wish to revisit. But it's made me what I am. There's no point in regretting things you had no control over.” Kane took the hand encircling his wrist and gently pried it away, pushing at her until she was reclining against the bed again. “The spell…it amplifies whatever state you're in when you die. It's why my brother and I both are able to control and summon fire. He can summon storms because it was storming the night we died and he channeled that power to activate the spell itself. It's why he's stronger than I will ever be. He was a willing participant in the spell whereas I was quite literally in the dark.”

“So…if the Wyatts got ahold of the spell…”

“We wouldn't know what their strengths were until we discovered how they died and activated the spell.”

"Shit." AJ breathed. Kane was still waiting for a proper response, such as horror or even terror, but to his surprise, AJ remained silent. The quiet was broken, however, as Paige finally emerged from the bathroom, steam emerging from the door behind her.

“Oh, good. You're up. Shower’s all yours if you want it. Don't touch my moisturizer though. Shit’s expensive.” She moved to collapse on the bed next to AJ and the smaller diva gave her a brief smile.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll just replace it with mayonnaise again.”

“Don't even think about it. I still haven't forgiven you from the last time you pulled that.” Paige glowered. AJ just laughed in response, and Kane shook his head. It was going to be an interesting night.


	6. it's hard to get high when you're living on the bottom

The next day was spent in intense training, with Paige squaring off against Seth and AJ going against Dean and Kane while Roman and Randy worked on getting that latter’s strength back up. The Viper was worse off than any of them could have fathomed, though, and it didn’t take long for the girls to tire of taking on their much larger companions. So after a few hours with breaks scattered in between matches, they all showered, then retired to the larger hotel room the Shield had been assigned. Dean had taken the liberty of picking up a few packs of beer, they’d ordered a few pizzas, then tuned into the network to watch old matches.

“I still can’t believe you let Ryback pull you off the ladder like that. And you missed like. Half of the tables you could have landed on to cushion that fall.” Dean poked at Seth’s side where the three Shield members were settled on one of the beds. Randy had taken the chair in the corner of the room, leaving AJ to nestle between Kane and Paige on the remaining bed.

“Oh my god, look at your face there. You were gone, man. Knock knock, nobody’s home!” AJ laughed between bites of pizza.

“Hey, screw you guys, I couldn’t sleep that night because of the damn concussion.” Seth glowered, but there was no real heat behind it.

“Don’t bitch. It’s not like we got to sleep either.” Roman remarked, rolling his eyes. “Someone had to look after your dumb ass and wake you up every few hours.”

“Perks of working with a team. You always have someone to keep you from slipping into a coma.” AJ mused.

“Besides, you learned to fall a lot better after that, didn’t you? No more dumbass mistakes like braining yourself on a fuckin table.” Dean grinned.

“It was our first real match. You can’t blame me for not being perfect. Mistakes were made.”

“Yep, and we will continue to tease you mercilessly for them. It’s what we do.” Roman laughed.

“And you wonder why I hit you motherfuckers with a chair…” Seth muttered. Like that, the good mood in the room vanished, leaving everything in an awkward silence.

“Fuck you, asshole.” Dean spat, jumping to his feet. He snatched his jacket from the dresser, then stormed out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him. AJ stared after him with her mouth open, her heart clenching for her friend who was so obviously still hurting from everything. She moved to get to her feet, but Roman’s voice stopped her.

“Go after him. Right fucking now. And fix your shit.” He growled, pushing Seth off the bed.

“Jesus, I was fucking joking! I—”

“No. You don’t get to decide when it’s okay to joke about that. You broke our fucking hearts that day, and no, even helping to bust Dean out of that hell hole is going to redeem you just yet. So go. Fix this.”

Seth grabbed his own jacket, and mumbled something under his breath, but AJ was too far away to hear it. Whatever it was only served to piss off Roman even more as he crossed his arms and fixed Seth with a glare until the man left the hotel room.

“Sorry about that. It’s all still a little fresh, I guess.” Roman huffed, attempting to give the others a brief smile.

“Hey, we get it. Betrayal sucks.” Randy said, shrugging slightly and taking a bite out of his pizza. “That’s reason number one why teaming up is a bad idea.”

AJ glared at Randy, throwing her pizza crust at him. “Yeah, well, teaming up is what got your ass out of a really shitty situation, so I’d say it’s not an entirely bad idea.”

“There are good reasons and bad reasons for everything!” Randy held up his hands in protest, wincing as the movement tugged at his stitches.

“Serves you right. Dick.” AJ stuck her tongue out at him as Paige rolled off the bed to tug on Randy’s arm.

“C’mon, you. You probably didn’t bandage the thing right. Roman, you’ve got a first aid kit in the bathroom, yeah?” Paige waited for Roman to nod in affirmation before pulling Randy into the bathroom and closing the door behind them.

“Never thought I’d see the day when Paige was playing nurse.” Roman raised an eyebrow in surprise, and AJ shook her head in response.

“She’s a good kid. And… She has a good heart, underneath all the scary eyeliner and black leather. It’s not her fault she got mixed up in everything. I’d be a dick to me too if I got pulled into something like this.”

Roman sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. “This is really a mess, isn’t it? Is it bad that… I’m secretly glad about it, though? War has always been what brought the Shield together and…”

“You missed your boys. Nothing wrong with that.”

“Relationships take time to heal. But some bonds are so strong that no matter how many betrayals occur, you’ll always come back to each other.” Kane said quietly. AJ turned to look at him in surprise. It was the first time he’d spoken all night, and while normally she wasn’t bothered by his quiet tendencies, she sensed that something was on his mind. She hesitantly reached out and placed her hand on his arm, but he shook his head, and she was barely able to catch him mouthing the word ‘later’ underneath the dark curtain of hair framing his masked face. She didn’t know why he wore it around them, when each of them had let their defenses down in a way—Seth wore his glasses around them, Paige and AJ had both been lacking makeup since after Raw and their hair was in messy buns, and even Roman’s hair was braided back in a way that he didn’t typically display to the public. But she supposed he had his reasons, and she wouldn’t deny him those.

“Any word from the Undertaker?” Roman asked suddenly after a moment of mulling over Kane’s words.

“No. My brother has made no effort of contacting me. We’re fighting this war on our own.”

“That seems kind of… odd to me. He doesn’t seem like the kind of person to let someone else fight his battles for him.” AJ frowned.

“We were both weakened greatly in our time with the Wyatts. I suspect he had something to do with my relatively quick recovery.”

“Which just made him weaker.” AJ sighed, crossing her legs and leaning over her pizza plate. She picked idly at the toppings, flicking them to the side for no reason in particular. “We’re at a serious disadvantage, here. What are we supposed to do next week?”

“We owe the WWE Universe a lot of explanations. We can’t go into too many details, but it’s not like the Wyatts are giving anything other than vague statements in regards to their part in all of this. So, AJ, you’ll cut a promo explaining your part in everything, then the Shield will come out as like. Your body guards. The way I see it, we owe you. Hopefully the Universe will see it that way, too.” Roman sighed. “Either way, I agree. We’re at a disadvantage and all we can do now is try to throw together a decent defense. If that means the Shield starts sitting ringside at all of your matches, so be it. It’s obvious that you’ve become a major target for the Wyatts.”

“Yay. Maybe they’ll break my other ribs this week.”

“Don’t even joke about it.” Kane said sternly, reaching out and pressing a surprisingly gentle hand to where her ribs were still wrapped. “We won’t let that happen.”

All of the sudden, AJ was starting to regret her borderline allergy to shirts that weren’t cropped. As though he could sense her discomfort, Kane removed his hand and looked away from her, and AJ ducked her head to hide her growing blush.

“We’ll have your back.” Roman added, completely oblivious to what had transpired between the other two people in the room. As if on cue, Paige and Randy emerged from the bathroom, the latter clutching his stomach in obvious pain.

“Did you really have to wrap it so tight?” he grumbled. Paige rolled her eyes in response.

“You’ll thank me for it in the morning when it’s not bleeding, sweetheart.”

“She’s always been really good with that stuff.” AJ piped up.

“Yes, thank you for your affirmation, AJ. Necessary as always.” Paige yawned, tugging the drawstring on her sweatpants to tighten them before fixing AJ with a look. “We’re gonna be training more tomorrow, and I’d really like to go to bed. You don’t have to join me, just don’t wake me up when you get in.”

AJ was torn; on one hand, she wanted to wait and check on Dean, to make sure he was okay after whatever went down between him and Seth. But on the other, she could read Paige’s body language as easy as if they’d never spent any time apart, and she knew the other girl had no interest in wandering the halls of the hotel alone so late at night.

“You should rest, too.” Kane murmured from her right, and AJ nodded before rising to her feet.

“We’ll go with you.” AJ smiled, tugging on Kane’s arm.

“So I’m bunking alone again. Awesome.” Randy sighed, reaching for his hoodie from where it was resting on the back of his chair. “If I get murdered or kidnapped again, I’m blaming all of you.”

“You might as well bunk with us. It’s not like we haven’t all shared a bed before.” Roman remarked sullenly.

“Yeah, I am not gonna want to be here for whatever shitstorm comes down when Dean and Seth get back.” Randy shook his head, then gave Roman a half-smile. “Thanks for the offer though. Maybe when things settle down some with you guys. Might be nice to share a room with a team again.”

Roman scrubbed his hand over his face again, and AJ skipped over to him to wrap him into a quick hug.

“They’ll work it out. And you’ll ground them. It’s how you guys work, right?” She murmured into his ear, pressing a quick kiss to the side of his temple before moving to join Paige and Kane at the door. “Text me if you need me, okay? Or send Seth to us if you’re still pissed at him. We’ll braid his hair as punishment.”

“Or we’ll dye it bloody pink.” Paige’s grin was absolutely terrifying, and AJ shuddered.

“Seriously, why do you hate him so much?”

“Long story. And it’s not hatred. It’s in good fun. Mostly.” Paige shrugged, giving Roman and Randy a brief wave as they left the room. AJ followed behind her silently, with Kane a reassuring presence at her side. When they arrived at their room, Paige immediately headed inside, but Kane pulled on AJ’s hand, causing her to pause. Paige shot them both a confused look, but shook her head and closed the door behind herself, leaving the other two alone in the hallway.

“What’s up?” AJ asked quietly.

“I’m… concerned. About my brother. It doesn’t typically take him this long to recover. I feel as though he’s… avoiding me.”

“I don’t think he’s doing it on purpose. You said it yourself, he probably just used up a lot of his power getting you back to 100%. I’m sure it’s just—”

“I’m not. At 100%. I can’t access any of my magic, except for the small bursts of fire you’ve already seen. Not that I had much to begin with, but…” His hand moved to his mask, and he let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t have the strength to do what I typically can. Little things that would typically be easy for me have suddenly become…impossible. It’s frustrating.”

“I can imagine. But you’re still pretty strong. You shouldn’t push yourself, or be so hard on yourself. I’m sure you’ll be back to normal in no time.” AJ frowned, reaching up to pull his hand away from his face. “Hey, Kane… why don’t you ever take your mask off around us? I mean… we’ve all seen what you look like underneath.”

“No, you haven’t.” Kane huffed a quiet laugh. “That’s… that’s what I’m talking about. I was able to maintain a normal face for years, through magic. But I can’t do that right now. My true face… it’s scarred, AJ. Hideous. It’s not something I want to subject any of you to.”

AJ’s expression was soft as she reached up to place her hand on his masked cheek. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to hide around me. But I understand your reasoning. And I’ll be here. If you ever wanna just… be real. Or something.” She gave him a bright smile, then tugged on his hand. “C’mon. We’re gonna have a long day tomorrow. I’ve got some moves I wanna try out on you!”

“That can only end badly.” Kane sighed, but he allowed himself to be pulled into the hotel room. The lights were off, and Paige was already passed out on one of the beds, snoring lightly. AJ giggled quietly, turning to give Kane a quick hug before tucking herself into the bed next to Paige. She could hear the bed next to them rustling, and it wasn’t long before she, too, fell into a deep sleep, comforted in knowing that Kane was watching over them.


	7. keep your head up

"Alright so... Here's how I'm visualizing this. One of my signature moves is like, literally throwing my entire body at my opponent, yeah? So a good counter to that is just like. Catching me. I'm not heavy, it's not hard. So the question is...how do I get out of that? How do I counter their counter?" AJ asked, hands resting on her hips as she looked up at Kane. He gave her a brief smile, then shrugged.

"I thought that's what you were going to show me." He replied dryly. Her responding smile lit up her face, mischievous as it was, and that was the only warning he got before she was running towards him and throwing herself at him. She got an impressive amount of height in her leap, Kane noted, but he was still able to catch her, hands moving to grip underneath her thighs and not even staggering backwards with her sudden added weight.

"You know, sometimes I forget how much of a mountain you are." AJ said quietly, eyes wide as she looked up to meet Kane's curious gaze. Whatever passed between them was gone in an instant, her brow furrowing in concentration as she brought her legs back from where they were wrapped around Kane's midsection. He didn't have time to question what she was doing before her shoes were suddenly pressing into his abdomen. He didn't budge until the tip of her shoe shoved into his solar plexus hard, and then his grip was loosening and her other foot was pressing into his sternum and then she was gracefully backflipping out of his grip, landing on the mat in front of him with one hand stretched out in front of herself to keep her balance.

Somewhere behind them, someone let out a wolf whistle, and even Paige was joining in on the cheering going on in the background. AJ was grinning, her hair falling loosely around her face before she whipped it back, eyes almost wild as she looked up at Kane. He'd seen that expression in her eyes hundreds of times, and it had always enthralled him even more than her usual expressions did, the wildness and unpredictability pulling him in and enthralling him in a way that only she could. Because he was used to seeing this expression, this time he was ready when she launched herself at him again, this time trying to get him into some semblance of the Black Widow. As soon as both of her legs were on his shoulders, though, he caught her and held her still, one hand on her lower back as he moved to power bomb in retaliation. She was fast, though, and moved her hands to his shoulders so she could swing her legs outwards, then propel herself down and between the V of his legs until she was behind him and--

"Did you just use a swing dancing move as a counter?" He asked incredulously, whirling around to face her. One advantage she had over almost everyone she set foot in a ring with was her speed, and just like that, she was skipping around him and out of his line of sight again.

"Use what you've got." She sing-songed in response, eyes sparkling as Kane turned to face her again.

All of a sudden, he remembered why this was familiar to him, remembered the first and only match he'd ever had against her. Startled, he took a step backwards, holding both of his hands out in front of him. "That's...that's enough for now." Kane hated how wrecked his voice sounded, and he quickly cleared his throat, trying to clear it of whatever emotion was bleeding into his words. "Don't you have a promo you need to be working on?" When he spoke again, he was pleased to note that his voice was much more level, even as AJ fixed that intense gaze on him. Gone was the wild glint in her eyes, nothing but a softness there now.

"Yeah. Guess I just got caught up." She said quietly, taking a step backwards. "I'll meet up with you later. If you want to run Randy through some more paces. Paige and I can take care of ourselves for the night, right my little crumpet?" Something in Kane's chest tightened unpleasantly at the fake grin she sent Paige's way, and he wanted to ask what happened, what he'd done wrong, but she was stepping away and out of the ring, throwing a casual wave over her shoulder as she left.

"Women, man. I don't get em, either." Randy muttered as he rolled into the ring, watching Paige and AJ as they left the room.

"Wasn't asking, Randy. Now, c'mon. You should be able to pull off an RKO by now." Kane replied gruffly.

"Are you kidding me?" Randy asked incredulously. But he still tugged off his shirt, the stark white of the bandages contrasting with his tanned and heavily tattooed skin. "So what's up with you and Princess Crazy, anyway? You guys have this whole...tension thing and it's fuckin weird."

Kane growled in response, reaching out to get Randy into a choke slam, but the other twisted away before his fingers could find purchase. "Nothing is going on with me and AJ. We just...have a complicated history. That's all."

"Yeah, that's not how chicks look at guys they have a complicated history with unless they want a complicated future with them."

"Really don't remember asking your opinion." Kane replied stubbornly, grinning when his fingers finally found purchase on Randy's neck. "Too slow." He smirked as he hoisted him in the air. To his shock, Randy twisted with the movement, wrapping his arms around Kane's head in a reverse grip and pulling him down into a sloppy yet merciless RKO.

"Too predictable." Randy countered with a laugh.

"Again." Kane crossed his arms, ignoring the eye roll he got in response.


	8. i know what you're going through

AJ wasn't sure what she expected to happen after the incident in the ring that afternoon. She and Paige had retired to their room for showers, then ended up curling up on their bed and watching Smackdown. It was weirdly quiet, not having Kane around, and AJ was surprised to note just how accustomed she’d grown to the other's presence, even in just a few days. When the knock came at the door, though, she immediately jumped to her feet, ignoring Paige’s scoff as she answered the door.

“Hey—” she began breathlessly, smile fading when she realized that it wasn't Kane at the door. “Oh. Um. Hey?”

“Hey, AJ.” Seth sighed, shifting on his feet in the doorway. AJ’s eyes were drawn to the plastic bag in his hands, but she chose not to comment on that just yet.

“What brings you to our humble abode? Figured you'd still be with the boys.”

“Yeah, sorry for missing training today. We, uh. Had some stuff we needed to work out, and I had something I needed to handle. That's actually why I'm here… I figured you'd be a good person to help me with this whole…grand gesture or whatever.”

AJ stepped aside and gestured for him to enter the room, noting that Paige had sat up and was eyeing them curiously. “Okay…what can I do for you?”

“I, uh. Wanted to dye my hair. Like I. Like I did back then.” He replied, pulling open the bag to reveal a bleach kit as well as some tinfoil. “I was hoping you'd help me out.”

“Oh, no. Nuh-uh. You are not trusting AJ with this.” Paige protested, rising to her feet as she tugged on her messy bun until a few blue strands slipped out. “I am the queen of bleach and dyeing. I don't think she's dyed her hair since—”

“You do know my hair isn't actually black, right?” AJ interrupted, eyebrows raised incredulously.

“Okay, point, but that's dye, not bleach. I know bleach because I have to redo this shit every few weeks.” Paige countered, and AJ nodded in response.

“Fair. You're in charge of this whole thing then.”

“No. Hell no. She’ll dye it pink.” Seth protested, bringing his hands up defensively.

“First of all, I don't own any pink dye so you don't have to worry about that. Second of all…the way I see it, you're the one in this group who needs to rebuild the most, yeah? You want us to trust you to plan our battles and all that, you're gonna have to start trusting us. That includes me.” Paige crossed her arms over her chest and gave Seth a defiant glare.

“You admit to hating me at least once a day.” Seth countered.

“To be fair, she expresses her hatred for everyone daily. Except Randy.” AJ pointed out, frowning as she did. “That's actually kind of weird…”

“Randy is injured. As soon as he's back to one hundred percent, I can promise you I will give him just as much hell as everyone else on this rag-tag squad. So, Rollins. You want our help or not? Because I can guarantee you AJ has no idea what she's doing when it comes to highlights, and do you really want that kind of damage to your hair?”

“…no.” Seth finally conceded after a moment's consideration. “But for the record, I'm doing this for Dean and Rome. So. It's not a vanity thing. This time.”

“When you come to us in a month wanting us to touch up your roots, it will be.” Paige grinned. “Alright, get into the bathroom, take off your shirt and sit on the tub. This is about to get fun.”

And it was weirdly fun, holding the tin foil in place while Paige meticulously painted each and every strand of the specified area with the foul-smelling gunk. Seth even managed to crack a smile or two, regaling them with tales of Shield shenanigans from the past.

“And Dean just goes… ‘That's not a knife—’”

“’This is a knife!’” AJ and Paige finished simultaneously, the latter actually laughing in response.

"I still can't believe he did that.” Seth laughed, wincing when Paige swatted his bare arm.

“Stop moving! I'm almost done and despite my dislike of you, I don't want to fuck this up.” She scolded him. AJ shifted the foil she was holding so it was pressed closer to Seth’s skull, moving her fingers as Paige began rolling it up.

“There. Now that needs to sit for at least a half hour, given how dark your hair is.” She snapped her gloves off, then dumped them into the trash can.

“Let's get out of the bathroom so the fumes don't get to our brains.” AJ suggested.

“Yeah, like any of us are mentally stable enough to need to worry about losing brain cells.” Seth retorted with a grin.

“You're kind of an asshole.” AJ glared at him in response as they left the bathroom. Paige had already propped open their window, which AJ was pretty sure was not even a thing hotel windows did, but she knew better than to ask questions. There was a slight breeze going through the room, now, and the last match of Smackdown was still going on in the background. Seth settled onto the bed that had become Kane’s in previous nights, and AJ surprised herself by curling up next to him. He gave her an odd look, but didn't comment on her actions, just turning his attention to the small tv screen.

“That'll be us in a couple of days. You figured out what you wanna say for your promo yet?” Seth asked, looking over at her.

AJ just shrugged in response. “I'm gonna tell the truth. I owed Kane a debt, I wanted to help him out. You and Roman found out about Dean being kidnapped as well as the other disappearances, and decided to help me out?” She suggested, looking over at Paige. “I figured I could spin it so you weren't involved? Try to get you out of this whole mess.”

"I... thank you, AJ. Seriously. It means a lot. And…if it doesn't work, and if I'm still caught up in all this…that's okay, too. You guys aren't the worst company, and if you're right about this war, well. I'd rather be on the winning side.” Paige gave AJ a brief, surprisingly genuine smile before nodding towards Seth. “What about you? How are you gonna spin this?”

“We were gonna say that everything I’d done was all a ploy. Turning on the Shield, getting the championship. All a show to cover for the fact that we were taking over the business from the inside. Then Dean got taken and…my cover didn't matter anymore.” Seth replied quietly, folding his arms over his chest.

“That's…not bad, actually. Convoluted enough that only the sharpest marks are going to be able to call bullshit, and those guys don't even matter. I mean, seriously. They think all this is fake.” AJ gestured vaguely. “Hell, up until a few days ago, I thought most of it was fake, too. Theatrics and stuff.”

“I've had enough matches with Kane and Taker and even the Wyatts to some extent to know that all that shit… It's more real than most of the other stuff that goes on in that ring.” Seth shook his head in disbelief. “You know, we still have no idea what happened to Dean in the middle of Elimination Chamber?”

“What happened at Elimination Chamber?” Paige asked, confusion on her features.

“That's right, you were still in NXT for that.” AJ blinked, surprised to remember that Paige hadn't been there as long as the rest of them had. They'd been through so much together…it was easy to think they'd been together since AJ first got to the business.

“Well, we were fighting the Wyatts, right? And this was before Braun, so it was technically an even match. Well in the middle of the match, Bray and Dean manage to start brawling outside of the ring, and it traveled into the crowd. Me and Rome had our own shit to deal with, and…we lost sight of him. By the time it was all back under control, Bray was back in the ring, but…we didn't see Dean again until Raw the next night. We didn't sleep, or eat or fuck or anything. We spent all night scouring the arena but…nothing. Then he just shows up the next night like no big deal, and won't tell us where he was.”

AJ looked over at Seth thoughtfully, taking in the concern etched in his features over an event that had happened so long ago. “You really love him, don't you?” She asked quietly.

Seth blinked at her in surprise, then shrugged. “If that's what you wanna get out of that, I'm not gonna fight you on it. But my point was that the Wyatts were terrifying even before they'd siphoned Taker’s mojo or whatever the hell. There's no telling what they're capable of now.”

"This is gonna end in disaster.” Paige sighed in exasperation, throwing herself backwards to spread out on the bed.

"But think of all the cool stories we’ll get to tell!” AJ grinned. “Assuming we survive, of course.”

“Not to get too dark, but the longer we do this and the more we find out about everything, the more convinced I am that someone isn't making it out of this alive.” Paige pressed her hands over her eyes, then flung them out beside herself on the bed. “I mean seriously. They don't prepare you for this shit in developmental.”

"At least you got a decent developmental. I had to kiss Cody Rhodes. That was literally one of the hardest things I've had to do in my entire career.”

“Says the girl who made out with Daniel Bryan, Kane, and C—” Paige began, but AJ hurriedly cut her off.

“Mistakes were made! I was young and stupid and…honestly, kissing Kane wasn't exactly a hardship.”

“Trust me, we all know. Only an idiot would be able to look at you two and think there wasn't something going on.” Seth retorted.

"Says the guy who's banging two of the hottest guys on the roster.” AJ raised an eyebrow, letting out a laugh as Seth turned bright red and attempted to sputter out a response.

“We’re not…we haven't, okay? We’re not…there yet or whatever.” He finally got out.

“Oh my god when did this turn into a girls night? Is this going to become a thing, because if so I demand alcohol for next time.” Paige grimaced.

“I mean, we are doing Seth’s hair, and we're in pajamas so…this is the already girliest slumber party I've ever had.” AJ frowned suddenly at that. “That's actually kind of depressing, now that I think about it.”

“Great. I'm to be responsible for your girl-education.” Paige rolled her eyes. “Tell you what, the night before Raw, we’ll have a proper girls night. Chick flicks, makeovers, the whole deal. Mostly because you desperately need help with your makeup.”

“Not all of us can pull off the raccoon eyes.” Seth retorted, and Paige fixed him with a wicked smirk.

“Keep it up and I will absolutely get my hands on some pink dye.”

"Alright, alright, I give! Please don't dye my hair pink. I really can't pull that off.”

“Dean almost could…” AJ trailed off, pulling out her phone so she could find a picture of the incident in question. “His hair was as long as mine is.”

“That may or may not have been my phone background for a few weeks back in the day.” Seth muttered.

“Gimme! I wanna see!” Paige grinned as she jumped onto the bed next to AJ. She let out a noise that was almost a squeak when AJ finally showed her the picture. “Oh my god. That is…was he serious?”

“He was a different person back then.” Seth said quietly, peering over AJ’s shoulder. “I don't think he was really himself till he came to FCW.”

“Till he found you, you mean.” AJ corrected as she gently nudged his side. “Sometimes you meet someone and…your whole life just clicks into place.”

"Please stop applying romcom cliches to what I'm sure is a very violent, masculine relationship.” Paige groaned, rolling away and off the bed. “C’mon, sunshine. Time to check your progress.”

Seth and AJ followed Paige into the bathroom, the latter letting out a quiet noise of surprise when they unfolded the tin foil.

“How's it look?” Seth asked worriedly, trying to crane his neck so he could see his reflection in the mirror behind the girls.

“Well, it's definitely not pink.” Paige grinned triumphantly.


	9. we are all misfits living in a world on fire

Kane didn’t see AJ again until their practice the next day, mostly due to his own awkwardness and uncertainty about whatever had gone down between them the day before. Randy wasn’t exactly an ideal roommate, but they got along well enough for Kane to tolerate his presence through the night. By the time he and Randy made it to the gym, Paige and AJ were already there, some sort of pop music blasting while they laughed and danced in the ring. Randy moved to the side to start stretching, wincing as each movement tugged on his stitches. Kane, however, moved to the front of the ring, just watching the two girls interact. It was the first time he’d seen them actually having fun together, and it was good to see AJ smiling again.

“Nice to see someone’s having fun.” Randy grinned, smile only broadening as Paige flipped him off. Kane looked up as AJ skipped over to his side of the ring, leaning out over the ropes as she wiggled her fingers at him. He raised his hand in response, lips quirking up into a smile as she danced away.

“We’re warming up, Randy. Try not to be jealous of all the fun we’re having.” AJ stuck her tongue out at him playfully before turning to wink at Kane. “You guys are more than welcome to join us!”

“I don’t dance.” Kane muttered at the same time Randy scoffed loudly.

“Your loss!” Paige retorted with a laugh as she grabbed AJ’s hands and began spinning her around. Kane could see the moment the thought crossed AJ’s mind before the smaller girl used her grip on Paige’s hands to throw her into a messy Irish Whip. Paige let out a laugh as she bounced off the ropes, retaliating with a clothesline that knocked AJ flat on her back. She let out a quiet noise of pain, clutching her ribs as she remained on her back for a moment, and Kane used the pause to duck into the ring, crouching next to her.

“Are you alright?” He asked quietly, reaching down to brush some hair away from her face.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just took me by surprise. Didn’t have time to fall right.” She coughed, pushing herself to roll on her side, facing Kane. She managed to crack a smile as Kane rose to his feet, offering a hand to help her up. Paige immediately went over to where they were standing.

“I’m so sorry, I thought you were ready!”

“It’s fine, you did good. I keep forgetting how stiff your clotheslines are. Kudos for that.” AJ grinned as she released Kane’s hand, then leaned down to brush off her gym shorts. “So that means you’re ready, right?” She looked up, the glint in her eyes the only warning before she was launching herself at Paige.

Kane wisely backed away, letting the two girls battle it out as he moved towards Randy. He was vaguely aware of the three members of the Shield entering the gym, all moving rather gingerly despite the fact that they’d missed practice the day before. Seeing Seth’s bright streak of blond hair, though, and the way Dean’s hand was wrapped firmly around his waist, it wasn’t hard to figure out why they were moving the way that they were. He firmly ignored them, choosing instead to focus on the girls in the ring. Paige had managed to get AJ into her submission move and the smaller woman was struggling in an attempt to get out. The position couldn’t have been comfortable for AJ’s ribs, but she still refused to give in until finally Paige released her, dropping the other face-first onto the mat.

“Next time someone has you in a hold like that, go limp. Half of her technique there is using the tension of your body against you.” Seth said as he rolled into the ring. Roman and Dean weren't too far behind him, and Kane awkwardly cleared his throat as he took a step forward.

“We need to work on taking down bigger enemies. The Wyatts are all fairly large men, which means we’re going to need to rely on strategy over strength when we take them on.” Kane said, looking at each member of their group as he spoke. AJ was sitting on the mat, legs crossed in Indian style as she looked up at him attentively.

“You're gonna need to identify and hone in on their weak spots. One thing I've picked up on is that the bigger the guy is, the weaker his knees are. You take out his knees, you can get him more on your level, and you disrupt his balance.” Seth crossed his arms, then nodded towards Roman. Through some unspoken communication, Roman seemed to know exactly what Seth had in mind as the Samoan advanced towards AJ. Kane tensed, already wanting to step in and defend her despite knowing she was more than capable of taking care of herself. In the blink of an eye, she was rolling out of Roman’s reach until she was behind him, and without rising to her feet, she kicked out and made impact with the back of Roman’s knee. The larger man let out a surprised noise as he dropped to one knee, and then AJ was spinning herself around him, locking in the Black Widow before he even had a chance to attempt to get back to his feet.

“Once you're there, you can restrict the air or blood flow.” Seth walked towards them, tapping AJ’s thigh where it was still bearing down on Roman’s neck. “You squeeze a little tighter here and you'll block the blood flow of the carotid artery. You probably can't block the air one hundred percent, but by increasing pressure, your opponent will be knocked the fuck out.” He tapped twice on AJ’s leg, and the girl immediately untangled herself from Roman, giving him an apologetic smile as she did.

“It's important to remember that what we’re learning here should only be used on the Wyatts, and not even during sanctioned matches.” Kane frowned slightly. “If you actually hurt someone, the Authority won't hesitate to take you off the roster, and then we’re down a body.”

“We can't afford to fuck up.” Seth nodded, looking over to Kane briefly before returning his attention to AJ and Paige. “That being said, if the Wyatts interfere in another one of your matches, they're violating a major rule and therefore anything you do in that ring will be classified as self-defense. But ultimately your goal should be to hold your own until we get in the ring, and then to get the hell out of dodge.”

“This is our battle, too.” AJ countered, crossing her arms defiantly. “I'm not gonna run away while you all are fighting for your damn lives.”

“You're more likely to get seriously injured than us.” Dean shook his head. “Seriously, it's not a girls versus boys thing, it's math. One, we’ve all fought the Wyatts before, so we’ve got experience on our side. Two, we’re bigger and therefore don't take nearly as much damage, and thirdly, most of us have fought in some seriously fucked up and dangerous matches. We’re used to almost dyin in the ring.”

“I didn't organize a rescue mission just to get pushed out of the actual fighting. I knew what I was getting into and I did it anyway and that's why we've been training so damn much. So we can get stronger so I won't be a damn liability in the ring.” She glared at Dean, then Seth, then her gaze was suddenly fixed on Kane. “You know what I'm capable of, and you know there's nothing you can do to keep me out of this fight. So the question is, do you people want to keep wasting my time or do you want to help me get stronger?”

There was a fire in her eyes that reminded Kane of why he'd been attracted to her in the first place, her ability to stand up against even the toughest of odds and keep her chin up despite everything. It was breathtaking, and all Kane could do was nod in response, unable to even look away from the intensity in her eyes.

“We just don't want to see you get hurt.” He finally managed to speak, his voice quieter than he realized, even in the thick silence of the empty gym.

“Yeah, well, I don't want to see any of you get hurt either. We watch each other's backs. That's how this is done, or it's not done at all, got it?” She waited patiently until Kane nodded again, at which point she turned her attention back to Rollins, a devilish grin covering her lips. “Great. Now teach me more about how to kill a man with my thighs, because I am here for this.”


	10. sing it for the people like us

"So there have been a lot of questions surrounding me lately, and I wanted a chance to clear that up. First and foremost, yes, I am back for good. No, I will not be spontaneously retiring any time soon. Yes, I want the Diva’s title, but yes, I have bigger priorities right now.” AJ paused, mic in hand. She looked over to the stage, where she knew Kane was waiting at gorilla position, just in case. Shaking her head, she returned her attention to the crowd, giving them an almost shy smile. “See, here’s the thing. The Wyatts took Kane—and the Undertaker, and Randy—ages ago. And no one seemed bothered by that. No one did anything. And here’s the thing. Kane was always there for me. Even after all the times I screwed him over, he was the one to have my back, to look out for me when everyone else was just…using me. So… I owed him. I don’t care that it’s been years since we even talked, someone had to help him. I decided that someone was going to be me. And I asked Dean to help me, because Dean’s always been a friend. And it was because of that, he got taken. It was my fault. But Roman and Seth still reached out to me, and we organized a rescue mission. Because kidnapping wrestlers and keeping them tied up in cellars is a huge injustice. And no one knows how to fight injustice better than those two. So we teamed up, saved our boys, and I guess that rubbed the Wyatts the wrong way.”

AJ’s grin was almost maniacal as she looked into the cameras. “But the funny thing is… I don’t care. Bring it on. I don’t care what hell you try to put me through. Cause I’m not alone. Not anymore.”

Right on cue, the Shield’s music hit, and the boys came down through the crowd, still in their individual gear but no less a functioning unit. Her grin broadened as Seth swiftly flipped over the barricade, and she tore her gaze away from them to glance over towards the backstage area again. The cameras weren’t on her, anyway, it didn’t really matter where she was looking. AJ knew that Paige and Randy were holed away in the locker room their little team had claimed, the Diva getting ready for her match later that night and Randy offering moral support. AJ was booked to be on commentary for that match, and Roman had a solo match against Luke Harper, so that was probably going to end badly. The fun thing about war was that it was impossible to script, and even harder to plan for. Fortunately, they had Seth Rollins on their side, and he was the master at planning for every possibility. They were prepared for Wyatt interference in Paige’s match, and in Roman’s. Hell, they were prepared for Bray Wyatt to show up in the middle of the freaking New Day match. They’d prepared, they’d practiced, they were ready.

“—and that’s why we’re standing up here with AJ now. We’re a unified front, and the Wyatts are going to have to fight every single one of us if they want to take even so much as one of us out.” Seth finished, pulling AJ out of her thoughts.

“Believe that!” She shouted into her mic.

“And believe in the Shield.” Roman finished, tossing his mic down as the three pushed their fists together. The crowd erupted in cheers, and AJ skipped over to the group, giving an exaggerated wink before pushing her fist against the outside of Dean’s. Surprising absolutely no one, the creepy Wyatt noise played, and the arena went dark as Bray’s face appeared on the screen in front of them.

“Boys, boys. Our quarrel is not with you. Not yet.” He laughed lowly, his gaze immediately honing in on AJ. Even though he was on the screen, she still felt like he was staring at her, like he could see her very soul. “Little girl. You’ve got a lesson to learn. About picking your battles, choosing your side. You’re a firecracker, AJ.” Bray chuckled, and AJ felt her blood run cold. “But even firecrackers burn out eventually. And you will. A light burning as bright as yours can only last so long before it flickers out of existence completely.”

“Do you always sound like a creepy southern Baptist preacher, or do you reserve that kind of ranting for misogyny?” AJ spat, her fingers tight around the microphone. She knew she wasn’t alone, knew that he had a literal army to go through before he could touch her, but she still couldn’t shake the feelings of helplessness and loneliness that were filling her with his words.

“What a chain you’ve weaved, little girl. But surely you know… a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” With a final laugh, Bray’s face faded from the screen, and the lights went up again, revealing they were still very much alone in the ring. AJ clenched her jaw, giving the boys a defiant nod before putting the mic to her lips again.

“I can’t wait to show you exactly how strong I am.” She said lowly before throwing the microphone down again when her music hit. The solemn look on her face vanished as she tossed her hair, smiling and grinning for the crowd as she skipped her way to the edge of the ring. Roman helpfully held the middle rope down for her, and she shot him a grateful smile before hopping off the ring and skipping to the back. Just as she’d hoped, Kane was still at gorilla position, and she didn’t hesitate to launch herself into his waiting arms, wrapping her own arms around his middle.

“I’m gonna kick all of their asses.” AJ mumbled into his chest. He let out a low chuckle, which she felt more than heard even as he reached up to pet at her hair.

“I know you will. And it will be beautiful.” Kane said quietly as she looked up at him. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, totally. Just a promo, it’s not like they were actually in the ring with me.” She shrugged, ducking her head down when he moved to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. She knew damn well he wasn’t fooled for a second, and she tightened her arms around him for only a moment before pulling away completely. “Seriously. I’m fine. I’ve got a whole squad of great people that have my back. I’m good.” AJ gave him her most dazzling smile, and his expression softened under his mask.

“Alright. If you’re ever not… I’m here.” He said as he stepped away. It was apparently not a moment too soon, as an unfamiliar Diva approached the pair.

“Hey, AJ. Sasha Banks.” The Diva said by way of introduction.

“Yeah, you’re the Boss. I’ve watched some of your matches. You’re really good.”

“That’s why they call me the Boss.” She shrugged, flipping her shutter shades on top of her head before crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m supposed to be fighting Paige tonight. And I know you’re going to be on commentary. Here’s the thing, I want that Diva’s title. To get it, I have to prove myself, and that’s not going to happen if I don’t get a chance at a clean match. Can I count on you for that?”

AJ gave the girl in front of her a confused look, speaking slowly when she finally replied. “I’m… not going to jump in on you and Paige’s match. I’m on commentary to critique you and talk about my return. If the Wyatts interfere…”

“We’ll all be there. No harm will come to you.” Kane spoke up. Sasha looked surprised, as though she’d forgotten he was even there, and AJ had to hide her smirk by ducking her head. The surprise on the other Diva’s face quickly disappeared under a mask of cool indifference.

“Great. I don’t want to get involved in this crap. I just want that stupid butterfly belt.”

“Hey! That’s my baby, don’t talk like that!” AJ protested. Sasha just gave her an unimpressed look.

“Was your baby. You’ve kind of moved on to bigger and better things, huh?” She shrugged before replacing her shades back on her face. “See you out there, AJ.” Sasha moved to walk away, then paused, turning back and lifting up her glasses just a fraction. “By the way? I’m a huge fan. Bayley said she’d kill me if I didn’t tell you that.”

AJ brightened at the mention of the NXT women’s champion. “I’m a pretty big fan of yours, too. I look forward to getting into the ring with you one of these days.”

“You survive the crap with the Wyatts, you’ve got yourself a match.” Sasha grinned, genuine excitement on her face before the shades were back in place and she was waving as she walked away. “Later, AJ.”

AJ laughed as she turned back to Kane, eyes sparkling. “And that is why I came back to this place.”

“For pretentious Divas?”

“Nah. For the camaraderie. It’s nice, you know? Even when we’re mortal enemies, we still kind of like each other. Take me and Paige. We’ve been frenemies forever. But after all of it… I don’t know, I still feel like I can trust her, you know?”

“She had your back.”

“You all did.”

“So does that mean you’re going to be making your peace with the rest of the Divas division? I’m sure you can find the Bellas around, even if they don’t have a match tonight.” Kane replied. AJ almost missed the slight teasing in his tone, but she still made a face.

“Hell no. Those ‘Total Divas’ can suck it.”

* * *

Kane was more than relieved when the Wyatt’s didn’t show up for Paige’s match. He stayed close, just like he promised he would, and was there to meet AJ when she skipped backstage after the match.

“I think I scared him.” She whispered conspiratorially.

“I think the amount of hairspray and glitter in that ring acted as a repellent.” Kane deadpanned in response, smirking slightly at AJ’s delighted cackle.

“Don’t say that where Paige can hear you. If she thinks that’ll keep the Wyatts away, she won’t hesitate to make us all look like strippers.” She grinned, closing one eye and cocking her head as she looked up at him. “You could totally pull off some glitter lipstick. Maybe throw some sparkle shadow under the mask, tease your hair. We can make this work.”

Kane wasn’t sure what expression he wore, but whatever it was only served to delight AJ further.

“You’re ridiculous.” He shook his head fondly, letting her lead them back towards the locker room they’d taken over. Randy was still there, lounging on the couch and flipping through a magazine. Judging by the way it was upside-down, though, Kane got the feeling that Randy had only picked it up seconds ago.

“You catch the match, Randy?” AJ asked innocently. Kane exchanged a brief look of amusement with her, but didn’t say anything.

“Huh? Yeah, I mean. I saw bits and pieces of it. Can’t believe you put Charlotte in the Black Widow.” He shrugged.

“She tried to jump in on Paige’s match. That’s an injustice, wouldn’t you agree?” AJ replied, moving to the locker where she’d stored her bag. Her eyes were still focused on Randy, though, and Kane didn’t miss the assessing look in her gaze as she waited for his response.

“Hell yeah. Kid’s got enough shit going against her as it is. She deserves a regular match for a change.” Randy responded immediately.

“Well, next time you can RKO Ric’s kid.”

Randy paused at that, narrowing his eyes at AJ. Kane instinctively took a step closer to her, recognizing the look in his eyes as that of the Viper, ready to strike.

“Shit I just might. She can’t be any tougher than her old man, that’s for damn sure.” He finally shrugged, relaxing back into his stance on the couch and attempting to nonchalantly right the magazine.

Kane let out a quiet snort as he moved to take a seat on one of the chairs in the room. AJ pulled her makeup bag out of her locker, then moved to sit on the floor next to him, meticulously touching up her eyeshadow and foundation. She met his questioning gaze in the reflection from her compact mirror, and gave him a slight smile.

“Roman’s match is at the end of the night. If the Wyatts interfere, we’re all going to have to step in. And war or not, I’m a woman wrestler in a grossly sexist business. I have to look my best. Stephanie would kill me if my makeup was even a little smudged out there.”

“What the shit. That’s kinda crap.” Randy spoke up, and Kane nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, well. It’s the way it is. It totally sucks, and I would love to go out there the same way I go into our practice ring, but we’re ‘Divas’ and we have that whole brand to maintain or whatever.” She huffed. “You guys have it so easy. You just have to put baby oil on and boom. Ring ready.”

Kane watched her carefully take a pencil and draw underneath her eye, and couldn’t help but agree. Even Randy shook his head.

“Sucks to be you.”

“Fuck you too, Randy.” AJ spat back, but there wasn’t any malice in her tone.

“Oh my god, I am going to murder Charlotte!” Paige exclaimed as she walked into their locker room. “Oh, and thanks for waiting for me. Really. Too sweet, making sure I wasn’t kidnapped or mugged backstage.”

“We’re wrestlers, that’s pretty much an occupational hazard.” Randy replied, offering her a water bottle as she collapsed onto the couch next to him.

“Didn’t stop you from bitching.” She retorted, but she still accepted the water bottles. “You guys know where the other three are?”

“Haven’t seen em since my promo.” AJ frowned, turning to face Kane.

“They were going to wardrobe for fittings for their new gear. But it shouldn’t have taken them this long.” Kane frowned, glancing over at the clock on the wall. As if on cue, the door burst open again, a flustered Seth Rollins leading the other two into the room. Kane took one look at them and immediately knew why they’d been delayed, and judging by the knowing grin on AJ’s lips, he wasn’t the only one.

“Young love. It’s cute, right?” She stage-whispered to him with an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle.

“Respect your elders.” Dean shot back.

“Never have, never will.” She replied, closing her compact mirror and tucking it away before resting her head against Kane’s leg.

“You’re planning on going out there later, aren’t you?” Paige asked, taking a towel out of her bag and wiping away the sweat from her forehead.

“And you’re not.” AJ shrugged. “I knew what I was getting into, and I’m not gonna leave my boys out there outnumbered.”

“I’ll be on standby, too. They won’t be alone.” Kane reminded her gently, knowing fully well it wasn’t a battle he was going to win.

“That’s great, but we’re a team. We went out there tonight as a unit. Together, or not at all. That’s the rule.” She looked up at him at that, the fire in her eyes daring him to question her decision. He merely inclined his head in response, not saying anything else.

“You really think they’re gonna interfere in my match?” Roman asked, a concerned look on his face.

“You’re up against Luke Harper. Of course they’re gonna interfere, dumbass.” Randy rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know.” Seth pursed his lips together thoughtfully. “I mean. We already had one confrontation tonight. They’d be crazy to do something else. That’s not how it’s done, you know? You’ve gotta time that shit.”

“Still. I’d rather be safe than sorry.” Roman said quietly.

“Contingency plans for days. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.” Dean shrugged.

“And then get Taco Bell after.” Paige added solemnly. She cracked a grin at Randy’s exasperated sigh. “What?”

“You’re talking to two dudes who have been in this business since before you were born, Crossfit Jesus, the kid of a wrestling dynasty, and…whatever the hell Ambrose and AJ are. None of us can get away with eating that shit anymore.”

“Technically I’ve been in this business since before I was born, too. You and Reigns aren’t the only legacies in this room, Orton.” She replied darkly, jabbing a finger into his chest.

“Shit, calm down, princess. I just meant we ain’t young anymore, that’s all!” He laughed.

“What’s wrong with Taco Bell?” Dean asked Seth, who looked appalled that the other would even ask him such a thing.

“C’mon, people. Focus. We’ll bicker over food after the show’s done, okay?” AJ sighed, rising to her feet. “We need to make sure Roman’s not going to get his ass handed to him, which means we need to make sure everyone knows where our entrances are. Kane and I will be at gorilla position, so I can run to the ring, and Kane can do his fire entrance thing.”

“Me and Seth can hang out in the hallway outside of the arena, so we can stick to the whole comin in through the crowd thing.” Dean nodded.

“Wait.” Seth frowned, holding a hand up while thumbing through his phone. “Steph just said we’re gonna be on commentary. She’s mad as hell at me and wants me to struggle through questions from Byron and JBL.”

“Could be worse. She could be makin you fight Heath Slater.” Dean pointed out. Seth let out a laugh at that, and Kane couldn’t help but feel as though he’d missed something there. He looked to AJ for some sort of an explanation, but she only shrugged and gave him a slight smile in response.

Kane looked around the room, suddenly taken with how strange their group was. Sure, he and AJ had their storyline years before, so there was a shared history there. And he and Randy had been members of the Authority along with Seth, although he had certainly been a different person at the time. He’d feuded with Dean and Roman, both during their Shield days as well as after, and yet… here they all were, sharing a locker room. Even Paige seemed to be enjoying herself to some extent, flicking the condensation from her water bottle onto Randy when the Viper wasn’t paying attention. It was different from the silent camaraderie he had with the Undertaker, or from the constant war but steady friendship he’d had with Daniel Bryan. This was a team, mismatched and nonsensical as the idea of it was to him. As though reading his thoughts, AJ leaned closer to him, nodding towards their teammates.

“We’re all weird, you know? In our own ways. And people like us? We’ve gotta stick together. Especially in times like these.”

Kane was silent for a moment, taking in what she said. He opened his mouth to respond, but the moment was gone when Paige tugged AJ away.

“Come on, your hair is a wreck. At least let me help you straighten it before you skip out there to your death.” The darker diva huffed. AJ shot him an apologetic look but he waved her off. There would be more than enough time to talk later. They had all the time in the world.


	11. don't let it get the best of you

It didn’t surprise AJ in the slightest when the lights cut out in the middle of Roman’s pin attempt on Luke Harper. She exchanged a quick nod with Kane before rushing out to the ring, knowing the demon would be right behind her. When the lights came back on, Roman was in the ring alone, AJ, Seth and Dean framing him on three sides of the ring.

“Coward!” Roman roared, audible even without a microphone. The only response he received was Bray’s chilling laughter filling the arena.

“Ashes, ashes.” His voice rang out, a haunting sing-song tone to his voice. 

“AJ.” Kane said quietly, drawing her attention away from Roman and down to the floor, where Kane was extending a hand to her. She shot a final look at the Shield, then reached down to take his hand, hopping off the ring as she did. The other three stood in the center of the ring, fists pressed together in defiance as a final shot for the still-rolling cameras. AJ tossed her hair, tucking her hand into Kane’s arm as they walked backstage, knowing the others wouldn’t be too far behind them. 

Stephanie McMahon was waiting for them at gorilla position, manicured nails moving swiftly over her phone screen. “I want all of you in my office in fifteen minutes. Paige and Randy, too, I know you’ve got them holed up somewhere backstage. This is not a request.” She directed a menacing glare at Kane, but when she looked at AJ, a sneer was in place. “Welcome back.”

“Glad to be back!” AJ called at her retreating form, the picture of cheerfulness. Kane snorted from his place beside her, and she quickly turned her attention to him. “Why’d you ever willingly work for her, anyway? She’s kind of a bitch.”

Kane’s hand reached up, touching his mask for a brief moment before it fell back to his side. “Stephanie understands things about my brother and I. There are rules for what we are. She knows that… if you have our totems, the things tethering us to humanity… you can control us.”

AJ was silent for a moment, already putting the pieces together in her brain. Stephanie had possession of Kane’s mask, and Paul Bearer had once possessed the urn of the Undertaker. It wasn’t as shocking as it should have been to learn that both of those storylines had actually been true. She took note of it, knowing that it was important, that there was some form of a key there. 

“But… Taker doesn’t have his urn anymore. Isn’t that… dangerous for him? To be untethered?” She frowned. 

“He doesn’t need the urn any longer. He found another totem.” Kane shrugged, pressing his lips together as the curtain parted again, revealing the three members of the Shield. 

“They’re just fucking with us now, right?” Dean grumbled.

“That was definitely a power play.” Seth agreed, nodding towards AJ and Kane. “What are you two still doing here? Figured you’d be back with the other two by now.”

 

“We got waylaid by Stephanie.” Kane explained.

“Yep. She wants all our assses in her office in…” AJ trailed off, glancing at the clock on the wall for a brief moment. “Shit, ten minutes. We gotta get Paige and Randy.”

“Already here, sweetheart.” Paige rolled her eyes as she joined the group, Randy at her side. AJ raised her eyebrows in surprise. 

“How’d you know you needed to meet up with us?” AJ asked, although she had a growing suspicion it had nothing to do with instinct and everything to do with the situation they’d just left. 

“I mean, we were in the area.” Randy shrugged. “Gets kinda boring, hanging out in a locker room all night.”

“Oh my god. You were totally coming to check on us, weren’t you?” AJ grinned. “You were worried about us and wanted to make sure we didn’t get completely murdered by the Wyatts.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, AJ.” Paige said, just as Randy crossed his arms over his chest.

“Can you blame us? If the Wyatts take you guys out, we’re probably next.” 

“He’s got a point.” Kane murmured. AJ only sighed in response. 

“Whatever. We’re all fine, Stephanie wants to see us in her office. All of us. So we’d better get to it, huh?”

* * *

Upon realizing the logistics error of attempting to fit eight people into the small temporary office Stephanie had set up for that night’s taping, they ended up in a room connected to the catering area with a large table. The seven members of their group gathered around the two long sides of the table, with Stephanie sitting primly in a chair at the head, looking every bit the queen that she was despite the fact that she was sitting in a folding chair. 

 

AJ had chosen the seat to Stephanie’s right, with Seth taking the seat to her left. Kane took the seat next to AJ, positioning himself at her right hand. He thought it fitting, considering the fact that AJ never would have let him sit between her and Stephanie. They were very much playing a chess game, and he would be foolish to even attempt to step in. Randy was to his right, with Paige sitting next to him, and the three members of the Shield sat opposite of them. 

“You get five minutes to explain this to me. I want answers, not conjecture. I want to know why the Authority’s protege is hanging out with this crowd. I want to know why Bray Wyatt is going around kidnapping my employees. And more than all of that, I want to know what the hell you two have to do with any of this.” At this, Stephanie leveled a perfectly manicured finger at AJ, then Paige. 

“I was just the getaway driver, don’t look at me.” Paige raised her hands defensively, then crossed her arms over her chest. 

“They took Dean.” Seth shrugged.

“They wanted power.” Kane replied, not offering any other explanation. When no one moved to offer anything else, Stephanie pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. 

“That didn’t answer any of my questions, and I think you all know that. Full story. Now. Tick tock, I don’t have all night.”

“They took Kane and the Undertaker ages ago. Then they took Randy for teaming up with Dean and Roman. The Wyatts kidnapped Kane and Taker for power, Randy to send a message. I was worried about Kane, I tried to get Dean to help me stage a rescue mission, but then the Wyatts took Dean. That freaked Seth out, Seth reached out to Roman, who reached out to me. I called in a favor from Paige, and we rescued everyone. Guess Bray didn’t like that, cause now he’s going after all of us.” AJ explained, jumping in before anyone else could say anything. 

“And where exactly is the Undertaker now?” Stephanie’s gaze was sharp, narrow as she looked at AJ. 

“Recovering.” Kane answered smoothly, putting a hand on the back of AJ’s chair. He was no stranger to dealing with Stephanie McMahon, and he didn’t appreciate the threatening air she had taken on, especially with her attention directed on AJ. “As you know, he’s been in this business a long time. It takes him a little longer to return to full health.” 

Stephanie seemed to take that answer well enough, merely pressing her lips together before shifting her attention to Seth. “And you. Why couldn’t you leave things to Roman and AJ? Dean has been in perfectly terrible situations before, situations you put him in. Why did you decide that now was the time to turn on your benefactors, your family?” 

Kane didn’t miss the way her gaze had suddenly gone soft, her eyes wide and searching as she looked over at Seth. Nor did he miss the slight twitch of Seth’s eyebrow, and he had to fight a smirk. Stephanie was the queen of manipulation, but he doubted strongly that Seth was blind to this fact. 

“Yeah, exactly. Situations I put him in. There’s power there, control. The Wyatts are loose cannons and you know that. Whatever they were doing to him, or planning to do wasn’t good. I saw him get taken, and none of this crap mattered anymore.” Seth’s gaze was hard as he looked back at Stephanie. 

“This crap?” Stephanie repeated, her voice suddenly laden with venom. “So you won’t mind a title match then? It doesn’t matter anymore, right?”

“Kind of have bigger problems on our hands, don’t we?” Seth muttered, visibly shrinking. Dean casually leaned an arm on the back of Seth’s chair, a subtle, meaningless movement to anyone who didn’t realize the depth of what was between the three Shield members. 

Stephanie’s expression darkened in response. “Nothing is bigger than that title. You shouldn’t lose sight of that, I don’t care what else is going on. That title means something. Not just to you, not just to the Authority, but to everyone, either on the roster or in the crowd. And if it doesn’t mean anything to you, I’ll strip you of it in a heartbeat and give it to someone who’s going to respect it.”

“I respect the belt plenty. I just also know that kidnapping and torture is kind of a big deal, and I don’t think it’s a bad idea to prioritize that.” Seth gritted out. 

“You will have a title match at the next pay-per-view. Survivor Series.” Stephanie said, fingers flying over the keys of her phone. “I’m also booking Undertaker and Kane facing the Wyatt family. Paige, you want a title match so bad, I’m giving you one. Randy, I’m assuming you’ll still be out of commission, so you’re off the card. AJ, you’ll get a pre-show match. I’d like to see what you can do against Sasha Banks. She’s been in my office for months trying to get solo opportunities, and I’m sure she’ll give you a run for your money.”

AJ looked like she wanted to say something, but Kane shifted so his hand was on her back, stilling her as best as he could. 

“Later.” He said quietly. 

“No, not later, now! Splitting us up is a terrible idea, you’ve got to see that. They’re not just coming for our titles, they’re coming for our lives! And you want us to focus on other things, are you insane?” AJ snapped, slamming her palms down on the table in front of her. 

“No, that’s your area, not mine.” Stephanie smiled, a cruel thing. “I have a business to run, AJ. And you’ve got ten of my best players involved in the same feud, one of which is a female who has no business in any of this.” She gave a pointed nod towards Paige. “I want to make sure you all have careers after this feud, which you won’t have if I stop booking you. Believe it or not, I am doing all of you a favor. And Randy, you will be meeting with trainers regularly and as soon as you are ready to compete, you will let me know so we can work on getting your career back on track.”

“Trust me, I’m starting to miss getting regular paychecks. I’ll be back in that ring the second I’m ready.” Randy nodded. 

“Stephanie’s right, though. We can’t do them any good in the ring, AJ. All we can do is look out for ourselves.” Paige said quietly, leaning forward as she spoke. AJ’s shoulders were tight as she sat back, and she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. 

“My whole life I have been the underdog. I have been smaller than everyone I’ve gone up against. I have had health problems, mental issues, break ups gone horribly wrong, and I have stood my ground through all of that. I care about these losers, and Bray Wyatt wanted to do something terrible to them. I don’t care how you book me, I don’t care if you ‘ban me from ringside’.” This was accompanied by air quotes. “Nothing is going to stop me from helping the people I care about.”

Kane found himself floored by the determination in her voice, the way she fearlessly stood up to Stephanie McMahon and Bray Wyatt in equal measure. He wondered if there was anything that could stop her, and he instantly decided he never wanted to see that day.

“So I think we’re done here. You probably wanna have this chat with the Wyatts too, right?” Seth asked, rising to his feet. The rest of the Shield followed his lead, and AJ hesitated before standing as well. 

“Oh, no. I’ll send them a memo, naturally. I don’t have the same interest in their activities as I do in yours.” Stephanie shook her head, not bothering to stand. “You can see yourself out. I have matches to arrange.” 

That was a clear dismissal, and their group filtered out of the room slowly, more for Randy’s benefit than anything else. 

“We’re still going to have your back in your match with the Wyatts. Think you can get a message to Taker, let him know what’s coming?” Seth asked quietly, drawing Kane’s attention from the girl walking beside him. He fell back, letting her walk ahead so he and Seth could speak with the illusion of privacy. 

“I’ll send word to Michelle. She’ll be able to relay the message. He can’t be away from her too long.” Kane replied.

“Right, cool. So what do we need for that? Some kind of ritual, right? We talking candles, animal sacrifice, what?”

Kane just stared at Seth blankly for a moment, finally reaching into the pocket of his ring gear to pull out a small device. “Text message.” He responded, typing in the access code before sending his sister-in-law a quick text. “I think you forget that I used to be in the Authority, just like you. I may be Hell’s Favorite Demon, but our bosses tend to enjoy swifter communication.” 

“Yeah, but. That was ‘Corporate Kane’. You’re the demon now, it’s different.” 

“We each wear different masks. That doesn’t change that we are one and the same.” Kane just shook his head, pocketing the phone again. AJ had realized that he was no longer beside her, and she was looking back at him with a questioning look. He knew his expression was soft under the mask as he looked back at her, and he quickly cleared his throat before looking back at Seth. “Excuse me.” 

Seth just made some waving motion with his hand, and Kane was quick to rejoin AJ. 

“Everything okay?” She asked quietly, nodding towards Seth.

“Yes. We were just… discussing forms of communication.” He answered honestly. Something in his chest went warm at the sight of her immediate humor, and he couldn’t fight the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips at her answering laugh.

“Please tell me he forgot you still use cell phones.” She managed to get out between bouts of laughter.

“He was surprisingly open-minded to the idea of animal sacrifice for the purpose of communication.” 

“Priceless. Thank you for that.” Her laughter finally subsided, and she wiped at her eyes. Her gaze suddenly went sharp as she looked over at Kane. “For the record, I don’t care how bad things get, I will never forgive you if you ritualistically sacrifice Bambi.” 

“I’d sooner sacrifice Randy.” 

“Who wouldn’t?” She fired back, amusement in her eyes for a moment before it faded out, curiosity taking its place. “Is that a thing you do, though? Rituals, sacrifice, things like that?”

Kane simply shook his head. “No. That tends to be more of my brother’s area. I have no talent nor interests towards that area.”

AJ just pursed her lips, tilted her head to the side for a moment before shrugging. “I’m not gonna be the one to tell you how to live your life. Or not-life, as it were.” 

“You think I should be more proactive with my gifts.” He stated.

“I think that if I had access to the kind of power that you and Taker seem to have, I would want to know more about it and figure out everything I could do.” 

Kane sighed, frowning slightly underneath his mask. “It’s more...complicated than that.”

“I’m sure it is. Which is why I’m not going to hold it against you. Just… saying what I would do.” 

“Well, hopefully you’ll never find yourself in that position.”

“Hopefully.” She echoed back, tucking her hand into his arm as they began to walk again. “Think we’re gonna have another team bonding night tonight. Figure it would be a good thing, with only two weeks to go till the big showdown at Survivor Series… you in?”

Kane glanced down at her, his lips quirking into something akin to a smile. “I can think of no place I'd rather be.”


	12. you'll make it out alive

AJ couldn’t remember the last time she’d trained so hard. Stephanie kept her in dark matches for the card, which meant a lot of working Sasha Banks and even Becky Lynch one particularly painful night. The Wyatts stayed away from her matches, and she did her best to stay out of the way during their matches with one of her boys. It wasn’t easy, but AJ knew that they had numbers on their side, and getting involved could end up turning her into a liability instead of an asset. Kane’s eyes in particular never seemed to leave her, both in and out of the ring, and she didn’t need Seth Rollins in her ear reminding her that he already wasn’t at his best, dividing his attention could only bring him harm.

“I’m just trying to help.” Seth sighed, running a hand through his hair as AJ worked through her stretches. Kane was strangely absent from their group’s locker room, which AJ was hoping was because the Undertaker had returned to lend them a hand more so than for any other reason. 

“And I appreciate it, really, I do, but I’ve got a match against my little crumpet tonight for… the right to wear black nail polish?” AJ called over her shoulder.

“The number one contender’s spot. Don’t belittle it, I worked hard to get here.” Paige retorted, crossing the room to join them. “Seth, you have a date with my bleaching kit sometime this week. Your roots are starting to show, and you need to look your best for your title match. Who’ve you got again?”

“Sheamus.” Seth made a face. “Not like it matters too much. Taker and Kane are main eventing right after, and that’s gonna be what people remember.”

“You’re still gonna be able to back them up, right?” AJ asked quietly as she adjusted the ties on her shoes. 

“We all will.” Seth nodded, clapping her on the shoulder. “C’mon, better get you two to gorilla.”

“Shit, is it time already?” AJ cursed, looking over to the clock on the wall. Sure enough, there were less than five minutes until they were supposed to be in the ring. Paige cursed as well, jumping to her feet and racing out the door. AJ glanced wistfully at the door, as though the sheer power of her will would be enough to make Kane materialize there, but to no avail.

“Roman and Dean will be here, if he comes by. I know he won’t be too far from your match.” Seth said quietly, extending a hand to her. She took it, letting him help her to her feet before they headed out the door and down the hall. It was weirdly sweet of Seth, to be so reassuring, and she offered him a brief smile in response.

“Yeah, no. I know you’re right. Just…. I’ve got a weird feeling. And I’d feel better if he was here.” 

“And I’m guessing you two still haven’t talked about….whatever is going on there?” 

“That’s the great thing about me and Kane. We don’t have to talk. He gets me, and I get him, and we just...we work. There’s nothing else to really say.”

“Still. Talking couldn’t hurt. You’re important to each other, anyone with eyes can see that, but it’s still nice to tell someone when you love them. Even if it doesn’t need to be said.”

“I’ll tell him after my match. Just to prove to you how completely unnecessary all that even is.” She stuck her tongue out at him, pausing once they got to gorilla. Paige stuck her middle finger towards both of them before disappearing through the curtain, and AJ had to bite back a laugh, tickled by how weirdly friendly the other Diva had become over the last two weeks. 

“Hey, don’t do it for me. Do it for him, that’s the point, right?” Seth grinned, shoving her towards the curtain. “Now go give ‘em hell. I’m gonna go back to the locker room, make sure Dean is ready for his match against Rowan later on.”

“You do that. I’ll catch you on the other side of this nonsense.” She made a face, waving him off before skipping through the curtain herself. The roar of the crowd was almost deafening, drowning out her entrance music even as she skipped around the ring. She couldn’t fight the jolt of pride at the response, knowing that she had been missed and that her crowd responses always beat the other female wrestler’s crowd responses, no matter who she was up against. Paige just rolled her eyes at AJ’s glee, clapping sarcastically as AJ walked up the steel steps. 

She’d just put her hand on the rope to get into the ring when her music and the lights went out, and she let out a scream as she lost her balance and fell to the ground. Pain shot through her, and she barely had time to let out another scream before the lights were coming up again, revealing Bray Wyatt standing in the ring, mic in hand.

“You didn’t really think we’d let you get off so easy, did you?” He asked, laughing as she backed away, pushing on her hands since she didn’t think her ankle would be up to bearing weight anytime soon. He made no move to get closer to her, which should have been her first indicator that something was wrong. Sure enough, she found herself backing into the shins of Braun Strowman, and she let out a curse as she saw the other three Wyatts standing behind her. 

“What’s wrong? No friends to back you up?” Braun sneered, kicking her forward. She landed on her hands, and she looked back at them before returning her attention to Bray.

“I’m not afraid of you!” She shouted back, keeping Bray’s attention on her while Paige rolled out of the ring and back towards the timekeeper’s area. AJ’s ankle was throbbing, and she had to fight the urge to clutch it to her chest. She refused to show weakness, even if she was already being pretty obvious by not standing. As it turned out, her pride didn’t matter, not when Braun Strowman was lifting her up and tossing her into the ring like a ragdoll, rolling her under the ropes as the other two got into the ring itself. Deciding it was a good a time as any, AJ pushed through the pain, rising to her feet and rushing at Bray. It was a familiar motion, being caught, and she struggled to get her feet free so she could push off. Her left foot finally found purchase with the other’s sternum, and she gave a firm kick, backflipping away and letting out a curse when she landed.

AJ wondered where Kane was, where literally any of the others were, but it didn’t matter, not when Bray was grabbing her by the hair and throwing her into the ringpost. The crack of her ribs was almost expected by that point. She wasn’t expecting the searing pain in her shoulder, or the way that it seemed worse than dislocated. AJ didn’t have time to think about it before she was being lifted again, twisted into the Sister Abigail and whipped forcefully to the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that if she opened them all she would see was stars. 

Her ears were ringing, but she was vaguely aware of Bray crouching over her, of sounds pouring out of his mouth that she couldn’t register as words through the pain. She forced her eyes open when the crowd started screaming, just in time to see Dean rip Bray away from her, the other two members of the Shield taking out the other members of the Wyatts while Kane crouched next to her.

“Lie still.” He commanded, placing a gentle hand on her forehead before turning away to join in the fight that had broken out. She wasn’t sure how long she laid there before fire erupted from the ringposts and the lights cut out, only to come back on at the sound of a gong resonating through the arena. AJ could barely make out the sight of the Undertaker choke-slamming Bray to the ground before she saw and heard no more.


	13. everybody wants to throw it all away sometimes

Kane hadn’t left AJ’s side for the entirety of her hospital stay. She’d been unconscious for hours, and Kane was starting to worry that she’d never wake. He barely looked up as he heard the creak of the door opening, but his attention was drawn when he heard the clear of a throat.

“Brought you some coffee.” Paige offered, extending a cup in Kane’s general direction. He was reminded of a conversation he’d had what felt like forever ago, about himself and the Undertaker not being affected by caffeine, and his lips twitched up in a slight smile when he finally took the cup from the other woman. She gave him a brief smile in response, then took the other chair next to AJ’s bed, reaching out to put her hand on AJ’s leg underneath the hospital blankets. Paige looked like she’d seen better days, her makeup smudged, hair pulled up in a messy bun on top of her head. She’d changed out of her ring gear at some point, opting for one of AJ’s old merchandise shirts and baggy sweatpants, and she looked every bit like she hadn’t gotten so much as a moment of rest over the last few hours. 

“It wasn’t your fault.” Kane finally said, breaking the silence as he returned his attention back to AJ’s unconscious form.

“It was. You don’t need to sugar coat it. I could have done something instead of running away. And now she’s… now she’s here. I was the one person who was there, and I… I did nothing.” She shook her head, clearly trying to distract from the tears that had sprung up in her eyes. 

“You didn’t put her here. Bray did.” Kane replied darkly. 

“But I could have stopped it.”

“Doesn’t make it your fault.”

“They said she might not ever wrestle again. Is that not my fault, too?” She retorted, then shook her head again. “It’s hard to not feel guilty about all of that.”

“You’ve got a match in less than a week. You want to honor her? Win back that title and carry on her legacy. Make her proud.”

“She’s just… unconscious, right? She’s not going to die?”

Kane opened his mouth to reply, but froze when the door opened again, this time revealing the ominous figure of the Undertaker.

“...and that’s my cue to exit.” Paige cleared her throat and rose to her feet. “I’ll let Randy know to give you a few minutes, I know he’s got the next watch.” 

The Undertaker didn’t acknowledge her offer, just watched her until she left the room, leaving Kane and the Undertaker alone with the beeping monitors and the unconscious Diva. 

“Why are you here?” Kane asked quietly, folding his hands around the cup of coffee. Undertaker gave the beverage a pointed look, and Kane quickly placed it on the table next to AJ’s bed, not wanting to hear his brother’s thoughts on the very human beverage. 

“I’m here for her… and for you.” 

“Cryptic as always, brother. So nice to know some things never change.”

“You know why I’m here. I assumed I wouldn’t have to spell it out for you.” Undertaker scowled, then reached within his jacket for a book, which he handed over to Kane.

“Your grimoire…” Kane mused, placing a hand over the front cover. It was easy to feel the power within the pages, to almost be able to see every spell the Undertaker had performed from this book over the years. A memory of his own history with the book came to mind, and he quickly shoved the book back towards his brother as realization dawned on him. “No. Not… not to her. You can’t.”

“It may be the only thing that could save her career.”

“But not her life. The doctors said she’ll live, she just needs rest--”

“What is living without the thing you love most? Can you look me in the eye and tell me that this is a life she would want? That you would want for her?”

“There has to be another way.” Kane replied, clenching his jaw.

“You know there isn’t one. And you know that when I pose this option to her, she’ll take it in a heartbeat. She’ll need your support through the transition, you know that from experience.”

“I don’t want her to die.” Kane forced the words out, noting how they made his stomach churn at even the thought of losing her in such a way.

“Her death would be a temporary one.”

“That does not change the fact that she would be dead. Living to only an extent.” 

“I will offer this route to her, regardless of your misgivings. I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t believe her to be capable of great things.” Undertaker inclined his head, then turned on his heel to leave the room. That was the trouble with having a legend for a brother. He tended to function as an enigma, starting and ending conversations as he pleased, expecting his word to be law. Kane was reminded of the last time he’d done the spell in question, of how confusing the whole thing had been for everyone involved, of how the Undertaker had genuinely not expected the subject of the spell to survive. But survival was a relative term, and Kane was still wondering whether or not everyone would have been better off had the spell not been attempted.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door again, and he looked up to see Randy standing in the doorway. 

“Saw Undertaker leaving. Figured it was safe for me to start my watch. Or should I just...not?”

“No, no.” Kane quickly rose to his feet. “You… stay here, with her. I need to...clear my head.”

He didn’t wait for Randy’s response before leaving the room.


	14. just wait, everything will be okay

AJ wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she opened her eyes, but Randy Orton sitting across from her hospital bed didn’t even rank in the top five. 

“Shit, you’re awake. You couldn’t have waited like. Ten more minutes for it to be Dean’s turn?” He sighed. 

AJ opened her mouth to respond, but winced when nothing but a scratchy groan escaped her lips. Randy sighed again, then moved to help her drink the water that had been left at her bedside. Once the glass was empty, he helped her lean back against the pillows, even going so far as to prop them up somewhat for her so she could sit up. 

“Thanks.” She said quietly as he moved away. “So what’s the deal?”

Randy just stared at her in response, something that was almost concern on his features. “C’mon, don’t… don’t make me be the guy that has to tell you this stuff. I can get your doctor, if you want?”

“I’d rather hear it from a friend. Whatever it is, it can’t be good. And… you’re a friend. And not the kind that would lie to me, either. So just… tell me? Please?”

Randy sighed, standing to his feet to snatch up the chart at the end of her bed. He flipped through it once or twice, then moved back to sit next to her again. “Torn rotator cuff. Fractured collarbone. Four broken, not fractured, but actually broken ribs. You’ve got a, uh. A couple of torn ligaments in your ankle. Torn ACL in your opposite knee.”

“I don’t even remember hurting my knee.” Was somehow all AJ could say, feeling very much like she’d had the wind knocked out of her. Sure, she’d been injured before, but never so much at once. 

“Happened when you charged Wyatt, probably. Endorphins have this way of keepin you from feeling pain, right?”

“Sounds about right.” She replied, almost barely aware of the words she was saying. “What… what else do they have to do?”

“They already operated on your ribs. One almost punctured your lung, and I do mean almost. Sounded like they were planning on operating on the rest of you today, if you were awake to consent. You should really let me call your doctor.”

“No, not.. Not yet. Please? I don’t want to hear it from them, not yet.” She turned to look at Randy, her eyes pleading with him.

“Okay, okay crazy girl. You wanna pretend for a little longer, right? That this all… doesn’t mean what it means.”

“I don’t want to say goodbye to my career just yet.” AJ said quietly, voice feeling thick in her throat as she fought back tears. Randy didn’t say anything else, just silently handed her a tissue when the tears finally escaped her eyes. She weakly accepted it, only crying harder when she saw the IV in her hand, pumping her full of what must have been some incredible painkillers. Randy just resumed his seat, pulling it closer to the bed and carefully passing his fingers through her tangled hair in a surprising gesture of kindness. She cried until she could feel the ache in her ribs, cried until she ran out of tears, then sobbed through that. To his credit, Randy didn’t move away, just stayed by her side, offering her his silent support through her fit. It wasn’t until the sobs subsided that he finally moved away, muttering a quiet ‘fuck it’ before filling up her glass with water from the sink in the room and offering it to her. She accepted the water with a grateful nod, blowing her nose in the wadded-up tissue in her hand before drinking. 

“I’m probably not supposed to be giving you water if you’ve gotta have a surgery later.”

“I just lost my career, I’m going to drink what I want. You’re just lucky I’m not demanding vodka.”

“Are you even old enough to drink that?” He teased dryly, grinning at AJ’s snort of laughter. 

“Thanks. For staying through all of...that.” She waved her hand.

“Hey, you said it first. We’re friends. Way I see it, you got into this mess getting me out of it. Least I can do is help you through all of...that. I’m not exactly anyone’s go-to guy for emotional shit, for good reason. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be there.” Randy cleared his throat, as though realizing just how much he’d spoken in one turn. 

“Well. I appreciate it.” AJ smiled softly, then hesitated. “Just… do me a favor? Look out for Paige for me? I’m not… I won’t be there anymore, to have her back. And I don’t want her to be alone.” 

“You got it. I’ll make sure she stays safe. Don’t care if that means I gotta do her title match for her, I’ll punch Charlotte in the face, don’t think I won’t.”

“Well, hopefully it won’t get to that.” She paused, hearing the creak of the door opening. To her surprise, it wasn’t Dean coming through the door but the Undertaker, greeting her with a nod of his head. 

“I wanted a word, before your doctors came in.” He said by way of explanation. His gaze moved over to Randy, who didn’t even seem to be all that perturbed by the disturbance. 

“Uh, Randy? Give us a minute?” AJ asked, clearing her throat and nodding towards the Undertaker.

“Oh, right. Sure, yeah. Have a good talk, I’ll go hang out in the hallway till Dean gets here.” He gave a two-fingered salute, then left the room, the door closing behind him sounding strangely final. 

“So, what can I do for you?” AJ asked, trying to push as much cheer as she could into her voice in an attempt to mask the fact that she knew her face was still red from her earlier crying. 

“It’s not about what you can do for me. It’s what I can do for you.” He replied, moving to sit in the chair next to her bedside. “The surgery will help to keep you functional. But there’s nothing they can do that will restore you to that ring.”

“But there’s something you could do, right?” AJ asked quietly, wiping away the tear tracks from her cheeks as she looked up at the Undertaker. “That’s what you’re here for? To offer to make me… like you? And Kane?”

“We’re not the only ones who have survived this spell. I think you have that same fire in your soul, the fire that will allow you to come back from beyond the grave.”

AJ’s fingers clenched in her bedsheets, and she stared at them while she considered the offer. Her eyes were drawn to the IV in her hand, to how small and fragile it made her hand look. “Will it make me strong?”

“Even stronger than you already are. There will be no more hospital visits, no more injuries that won’t repair themselves. No more asthma, or fragile bones.”

“Really not seeing a downside to this offer.” AJ said slowly, eyes narrowing as she looked at the other. “Where’s the catch?” 

“Dying...changes you. There is no way to escape that change. Who you will become… it may only be a shell of who you were.”

AJ was quiet for a long moment, the severity of what he was offering, of what she was actually considering slowly sinking in. 

“And what does Kane think about this?” She finally asked. She looked over to Taker, watched the enigma purse his lips as though thinking through whatever he was about to say.

“He wants you to be happy. To be alive.”

“He doesn’t want this life for me. Or un-life, rather.” AJ sighed, bringing the hand that didn’t have a needle sticking out of it up to tug through her messy hair. Her voice was quieter, defeated when she spoke again. “Will he hate me if I say yes?”

“I don’t think my brother is capable of hating you.”

“Not really an answer. But I guess it is, huh?” 

“It’s as much of an answer as I can give. I won’t pretend to know how he’ll react to your decision.”

“That’s fair. So, I guess you already know what I’m going to say, huh?”

“I have an idea, yes.” His lips quirked up into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “I’ll take you back to Death Valley once you’re released from the hospital. I wouldn’t advise consenting to the surgeries. There won’t be much of a point to them.”

“Yeah, guess not.” AJ forced a smile. “But… yeah. Yeah, I’m going to take you up on it. Way I see it… I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t at least try this way. And living forever doesn’t sound so bad, even if it is just a half-life or whatever.”

The Undertaker just inclined his head in acknowledgment, rising to his feet just before a rapping sound came at the door. 

“Hey.” Dean poked his head in. “Randy said you were awake. Your doctors wanna talk to you, but…” He glanced behind himself, then spoke in a loud whisper. “I brought you some contraband. Oreos and peanut butter.” He gestured vaguely to the cargo pants he was wearing.

“You’re the best.” AJ grinned at Dean, then returned her attention to Taker. “And thank you. For everything.”

“Don’t thank me yet. Dying isn’t exactly a picnic.” Was all he said before pushing past Dean and leaving the room. 

Dean looked a little confused, and immediately looked over to AJ in concern. “What was that about dying?”

“It’s a long story. Give me the Oreos, then we’ll talk.” 

* * *


	15. even when you're feeling like it's going down in flames

“So she’s made her decision, then?” Kane asked quietly as his brother joined him in the waiting room. The other members of their group had retired to the hotel, having only stayed in the hospital for as long as their respective shifts. Now that AJ had woken up, there was no need for the rotation, so with the exception of Dean, everyone was catching up on some much-needed rest. 

“You knew what she would choose.” The Undertaker shrugged, sitting down in the seat next to Kane. 

“You shouldn’t have offered it in the first place.”

“One day… one day you’ll thank me.”

“I haven’t yet.” Kane pointed out, curling his fingers around the now-cold coffee drink Paige had given him hours before. 

“But you will, for her sake. She’ll become something truly incredible. You know it to be true.”

“She’s something incredible now.” 

“Incredible, but breakable. With our power, she will become indestructible. You won’t have to worry about her ever again. And besides… this was not your decision to make. It was hers, and hers alone.” He gave Kane a brief nod, then rose to his feet. “I’m taking her to Death Valley tonight. You should join us.”

“I won’t watch her die.” Kane clenched his jaw, refusing to look at the other. “I’ll be there for her… after. But I won’t be able to stand by while my brother murders the woman I--” He cut himself off. “...care for.”

“Caring is a weakness, brother.” Undertaker said quietly. “Love, however… is the greatest power of all.”

Kane didn’t respond, just watched as his brother made his way out of the hospital. It wasn’t long before Dean joined him, nonchalantly plucking the cold coffee out of his hands and downing it in one go.

“God that’s awful. Got anything stronger?” He winced, coughing as he took the seat the Undertaker had just vacated. 

“I don’t carry a flask.” Kane cocked his head as he looked at Dean. “What would make you think I would be the type to do so?”

“Just figured with your girl in the hospital. Desperate times, man.” 

“She’s not--”

“Don’t even start that shit. That girl’s been yours since way before she called me to instigate a rescue mission. I’ve known her for ages, you know? She’s never looked at anyone the way she looks at you. Not that it’s my business, but. If what she’s sayin is true… I’d say something to her. Before any of that shit happens. You don’t want that hangin over your head, man.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” Kane admitted quietly.

“Start with ‘I love you’ and see where it goes.” Dean suggested, patting him on the shoulder. Kane just gave him a look in response, and Dean immediately dropped his hand. “I’m just sayin. She’s been screaming those words at you with everything she does. And you’re tougher to read than a book written in hieroglyphics.” 

Kane didn’t say anything in response, just crossed his arms over his chest while he thought over what Dean was saying. It was true, he wasn’t the type to wear his heart on his sleeve. But it must be obvious to her, if his feelings were that apparent to everyone else on the team. And even besides that, he wasn’t entirely sure he could trust himself to speak to her, to say anything other than beg her to choose a different path.

“I’m going with them, you know.” Dean said suddenly, breaking the silence. “AJ… she figured you wouldn’t wanna be there, since you don’t approve of the who-do voodoo stuff Taker wants to do. And she’s been thinkin about anchors and humanity, and said I was her second pick. I don’t really wanna watch the chick die, think that might traumatize me a little, actually, but. She’s my best friend. She wants me there, I’m gonna be there. I’m not gonna ask you to go, cause I know that’s not a thing you wanna do, but… Afterwards. You should be there for her. Help her through the change. You’re probably the closest thing to an actual anchor she’s got, and you’re probably the only one who can help her through all the crazy that her life is gonna become.”

“I’ll be there for her. Of course I will.” Kane replied quietly.

“Awesome.” Dean said, clapping him on the shoulder again before rising to his feet. “Anyway, I’m gonna go get some sleep before we gotta drive. Sides, I wanna let the boys know what’s up, why I’m gonna be missing the last week of training before a pay-per-view and all that.”

Kane just nodded, waiting until Dean was nearly to the door before speaking again. “Dean.”

“Hm?” 

“...thank you.” Kane finally settled on.

“Yeah, don’t sweat it.” Dean just shrugged, raising a hand in a weird wave. “Later, man.”

Kane sat in the waiting room for what must have been hours before a delicate cough pulled him out of his reverie. 

“I was… gonna go see her. But I can wait if you were about to.” Paige said quietly.

“No, no. I was… just leaving. Tell her I’ll see her… see her after.” Kane replied as he stood.

“Yeah, sure. But you could tell her yourself?” She suggested.

“No, I… I can’t. But thank you.” He turned, not looking back as he walked away.


End file.
